America's Oldest Figurine of a Santa
The original Blue Santa pictured here was found at
Lock 3 Park in Akron, Ohio during an archeological
dig by
The American Toy Marble Museum. It was
manufactured on the site by
The American Marble
& Toy Manufacturing Co. in the mid - 1890s.
This company was the first toy
marble factory in the USA; it mass produced a
million marbles a day and turned out dozens of other
toys including the Blue Santa.
Visit the Blue Santa & Friends Site
Birth of the
Modern American Toy Industry
Akronite Samuel C. Dyke ignited the
modern toy industry when he automated his factory in 1884. Toy marbles
have been around for thousands of years; however, until recently, they
were very expensive to produce because they were created by hand:
one-marble-at-a-time. Sam Dyke changed all that when he invented
machinery to fully mass-produce toy marbles made out of clay, later to
become nick-named "commies" by the children who were enthralled by them
(because they became so common among all the varieties of
marbles to be eventually produced). Read More...
