Batman Collection

Much of The Children’s Museum collection has grown one object donation or purchase at a time. But occasionally we acquire a collection amassed by an individual that contains hundreds, even thousands, of objects.

 

Walking into the basement of lifelong Indiana resident Kevin Silva’s suburban home truly felt as though you were entering the Batcave. In it were more than 3,200 comic books, screen-used costumes and props, toys, and licensed Batman merchandise, meticulously accumulated over more than 45 years of collecting, beginning when Silva’s parents bought him his first Batman lunchbox in grade school. By the time he offered the collection to the museum in 2016, it had become the world’s largest collection of Batman memorabilia, verified by Guinness using Silva’s precise records.

 

In a WTHR story about his collection, Silva explained why he decided to part with the collection.

 

“A friend of mine made a comment to me that 50 years from now, all the stuff I’ve gathered up all these years will still be together at the museum. It will get shared way more than I could share it here [in my house] and that was the deciding factor.”