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Duncan Brown collection of Williams pinball drawings

 Collection
Identifier: 122.6850
The Duncan Brown collection of Williams pinball drawings includes digital surrogates of documents related to the design, production, and advertisement of pinball machines. The archive is comprised of arcade fliers, artwork, diagrams, drawings, and production logs. The collection features "The Lost Pinball Drawings of Harry Williams," and images for the Internet Pinball Database.

Dates

  • 1932-2015
  • Majority of material found within 1970-1990

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

Digital materials are restricted to on-site only access with required advanced notice for providing playback equipment.

Conditions Governing Use

Though the donor has not transferred intellectual property rights (including, but not limited to any copyright, trademark, and associated rights therein) to The Strong, they have given permission for The Strong to make copies in all media for museum, educational, and research purposes.

Extent

277.0 Gigabytes

Additional Description

Overview

The Duncan Brown collection of Williams pinball drawings includes 277 gb of digital materials. The files are comprised of digital surrogates of images and documents related to the design, production, and advertisement of pinball machines. The materials date from 1932 to 2015, with the bulk of material dating from 1970 to 1990.

Historical Note

Williams pinball designers introduced many pinball innovations, including ramps, scoring reels, drop targets, and modern 3-inch flippers. The company was acquired and incorporated several times, resulting in company name changes (becoming Williams Electronics, Inc. in 1974 and WMS Industries in 1987). In 1988, WMS purchased competitor Bally/Midway. The pinball division of WMS closed in 1999, after more than 50 years of designing and manufacturing electro-mechanical and solid-state pinball machines.

Duncan Brown is a software developer who worked for Williams writing software for games including slot machines and the Star Wars Episode I Pinball 2000 machine. While Brown was working at Williams, a collection of Harry Williams pinball playfield drawings from the 1970s was discovered. In 2015 he created digital scans of the drawings.

System of Arrangement

Series I: Williams production logs, 1971-1991

Series II: Drawings, 1958-1994

Subseries A: Art, 1983-1994

Subseries B: Backglass, 1958-1963

Subseries C: Inserts, 1958-1993

Subseries D: Parts, 1958-1983

Subseries E: Playfields, 1937-1993

Series III: Lost pinball drawings of Harry Williams, 1965-2015

Series IV: Internet Pinball Database scans, 1932-2012

Immediate Source of Acquisition

The collection was donated to The Strong in November, 2015 as a gift of Duncan Brown from the collection of Steve Kordek. The files were accessioned by The Strong under Object ID 122.6850.

Related Materials

The Williams pinball playfield design collection at The Strong also includes digital scans of pinball playfields and artwork digitized by Duncan Brown.

Processed by

Laura Boland, May - June 2024.

Subjects

Record Groups

Related Names

Creator

Finding Aid & Administrative Information

Title
Guide to the Duncan Brown Collection of Williams Pinball Drawings, 1932-2015 —
Status
completed
Author
Laura Boland
Date
June 2024
Description rules
dacs
Language of description
English

External Documents

Repository Details

Repository Details

Part of the Brian Sutton-Smith Library and Archives of Play at The Strong Repository

https://www.museumofplay.org/collections/brian-sutton-smith-library-archives-of-play/
Contact:
The Strong
One Manhattan Square
Rochester NY 14607 USA
585.263.2700
585.423.1886 (Fax)

Repository Information

Brian Sutton-Smith Library and Archives of Play
The Strong
One Manhattan Square
Rochester, NY 14607 U.S.A.
library@museumofplay.org

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