Games played with marbles have been around for a long time. Early marbles, made of rounded pebbles and clay, have been found in ancient sites in different areas of the world. Modern marbles, like those sold in stores today, are largely made of glass. In the Virgin Islands, games played with marbles were very popular from around the early 1900s until around the 1970s.
This photograph was taken in French village, St. Thomas - an area known today as Frenchtown, St. Thomas. It gained the name French village because many French people lived there. The French people were from St. Barthelemy, or St. Barths for short. It is a French island in the Caribbean. People from St. Barths began moving to St. Thomas starting around the 1830s, with larger waves of immigration around the 1870s. People from St. Barths continued to move to St. Thomas until around the 1960s. Descendants of the people from St. Barths still live in Frenchtown today, and also on the Northside of St. Thomas. Frenchtown is a seaside area, located just outside downtown Charlotte Amalie on St. Thomas, Virgin Islands.
