Lee's Legendary Marbles and Collectables

Lee's Legendary Marbles & Collectables

Established	2001
Location	York, Nebraska
Type	Art, Collectables, and Antique museum

Glass Toy Marbles

Introduction

Lee’s Legendary Marbles & Collectables is a museum located in York, Nebraska. The museum specializes in displaying, storing, and sometimes selling parts of a toy marble collection amassed over 70 years. It has been officially recognized as the World's Largest Collection of Marbles as of 2023.

History

The museum was founded in 2001 by Lee Batterton who began collecting marbles in 1954 the United States and later while living abroad in Germany. He was raised in Oklahoma where his collection began but moved to Germany for his work as a grain elevator repairman. There he continued to collect marbles as Germany was the first country to create a way of mass-producing marbles. As Germany was the first country to mass-produce them, the marbles in the country are sought after by marble collectors. Marble production in America began in Akron, Ohio in 1884, and became mass-produced in the same place in 1900 with the help of Samuel Dyke. Collecting marbles continued to rise in popularity throughout America after the turn of the 20th century. An Article written in 1936 about other marble collectors in America mention the popularity among children of collecting marbles.

Lee, born April 18th, 1933 and who died on March 8th, 2024 in York, Nebraska, created the museum on recommendation of a fellow marble-collecting friend in 2001.

The Collection

Lee's varied collection of marbles has been recognized as the World's Largest Collection of Marbles by the World Record Academy, consisting of over 700,000 marbles. Many of the marbles housed in the museum are kept in display cases, but Lee claims that when he began collecting marbles he would store them in jars. Many of the less valuable marbles are still kept in large glass jars at the museum today.