The City Museum in St. Louis, Missouri is known for all the crazy things you’ll find inside. There are caves, taxidermy, a skateless skatepark, 10-feet slides, and an oversized praying mantis. But it is also home to one of our favorite giant things: The World’s Largest Pencil!
The world’s largest pencil was originally built by artist Ashrita Furman in honor of the 76 birthday of Sri Chinmoy, an international artist, spiritual leader, and humanitarian. A group of volunteers helped construct the world’s largest pencil in Queens, New York.
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At the equivalent of 1,900,000 regular pencils this giant #2 could take a whole lot of standardized tests. The pencil is built to be exactly proportionate to a normal-sized pencil, but on a much larger scale. The pencil is 76-feet long, contains 4,500 pounds of Pennsylvania graphite, has a real 2.5-foot erasing rubber eraser, and weighs an astonishing 21,700 pounds! It took a group of volunteers 14 days to construct and they used a total of 50 gallons of paint to give it the classic yellow color.
The pencil was unveiled, and awarded the world’s largest Guinness World Record on August 27, 2007. After the New York event, no one knew what to do with this giant pencil. Luckily the City Museum stepped in and in 2009 it was moved to Missouri. The pencil was so big it had to be cut in half to transport.
The big pencil now resides on the third floor of the City Museum, next to the Skateless Skatepark.
Like big things? Be sure to also check out the world’s largest underwear at the museum too!
Can’t get enough giant pencils? Check out the Big Pencil in Wytheville, Virginia and the Big Pencil in Casey, Illinois.
World’s Largest Pencil
Location: 750 N 16th St, St. Louis, MO 63103
Date of Photos: March 20, 2010
Visit the museum’s official website for up-to-date hours and admission prices.
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