The Philip E. Orbanes papers contain materials from 1905 through 2012, with the bulk of the material dated from 1967-2005. The items in this collection include game designs, game instructions, personal and business correspondence, legal contracts, photographs, reference materials, research notes, and newspaper/magazine articles utilized by Philip (“Phil”) Orbanes throughout his lengthy career in the toy and game industry. This collection also includes research materials (including photocopies of materials from the Parker Brothers’ corporate archives) used by Phil Orbanes for his books The Monopoly Companion (Bob Adams, Inc. Publishers: Boston, 1988), The Game Makers: The Story of Parker Brothers from Tiddledy Winks to Trivial Pursuit (Harvard Business School Press: Boston, 2004), and Monopoly: The World’s Most Famous Game – And How It Got That Way (Da Capo Press: Boston, 2006). Additional scope and content information is listed for each series under the “Contents List” section of this finding aid.

The Philip E. Orbanes papers are arranged into nine series, three of which are further divided into subseries. The collection is housed in 21 archival document boxes. Digital video comprises one series, located on the internal network of The Strong.