Duncan Brown collection of Williams pinball drawings
Collection Scope and Content Note
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
- Creation: 1932-2015
- Creation: Majority of material found within 1970-1990
Creator
- Kordek, Steve (Person)
- Fedesna, Ken (Person)
- Glazman, Marty (Person)
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.
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.
Extent
277.0 Gigabytes
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
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.
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.
Processed by
Laura Boland, May - June 2024.
Subject
- Knight, Irwin (Person)
- Williams, Harry E. (Person)
- Mittel, Jack (Person)
- Dillon, Joe (Person)
- Horlick, Gordon (Person)
- Williams Manufacturing Co. (Organization)
- Bally Manufacturing Corporation (Organization)
- Chicago Coin Machine Co. (Organization)
- Exhibit Supply Co. (Organization)
- D. Gottlieb & Co. (Organization)
- Electronic Arts (Firm) (Organization)
- Midway Manufacturing Co. (Organization)
- Stern Pinball, Inc. (Organization)
- United Manufacturing Co. (Organization)
- Zaccaria (Organization)
- Sega, S.A. SONIC (Organization)
- Genco Manufacturing and Sales Co. (Organization)
- Title
- Guide to the Duncan Brown Collection of Williams Pinball Drawings, 1932-2015 —
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Laura Boland
- Date
- June 2024
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- Undetermined
- Script of description
- Code for undetermined script
- Language of description note
- English
Repository Details
Part of the Brian Sutton-Smith Library and Archives of Play at The Strong Repository
The Strong
One Manhattan Square
Rochester NY 14607 USA
585.263.2700
585.423.1886 (Fax)
library@museumofplay.org