Brian Sutton-Smith Library and Archives of Play at The Strong Archive

Vivian Gussin Paley, the teacher, author, and advocate for the importance of play for young children, died on July 26, 2019. She was a charter member of the editorial advisory board of the American Journal of Play and The Strong’s Brian Sutton-Smith Library and Archives of Play cares for a collection of her personal papers. Her pioneering technique of storytelling and story acting in the early childhood classroom earned her a MacArthur “genius” grant in 1989 and influenced […]

Continue Reading about Remembering Educator and Play Advocate Vivian Gussin Paley, 1929–2019 Published on:
February 7, 2020

Ian Larson, 2019 Strong Research Fellow
PhD Student, University of California, Irvine; Irvine, California
Any new popular device is bound to have its share of imitators and copycats. This certainly was the case in 1972 after Ralph H. Baer and Magnavox released the first-ever home video game console, the Magnavox Odyssey. While Baer’s Odyssey failed to spark a revolution, one of its many games, Table Tennis, would become the inspiration for the game that did: Nolan Bushnell and Atari’s PONG, the first […]

Continue Reading about Clones in the Archives: Console and Software Cloning Practices in the Early Years of Video Games Published on:
January 23, 2020

Steven Dashiell, 2019 Mary Valentine-Andrew Cosman Research Fellow
PhD candidate, University of Maryland Baltimore County
 

My dissertation concerns the discourses of male student veterans, examining their discourses concerning their perceptions of marginalization on campus. However, I have always had an interest in research surrounding gaming, specifically the newer games of strategy that fall into the categories of role-playing games (RPGs) and collectible card games. I am fascinated by how players interact and interface with each other while they are engaged in the […]

Continue Reading about Masculine Discourse, Role Playing Games, & Help Seeking—Taming Dragon Magazine Published on:
January 10, 2020

In 2018, The Strong received a donation of thousands of artifacts, including first-edition strategy and simulation games, wargames, and role-playing games from Darwin Bromley, co-founder of Mayfair Games. The artifacts constituted the single largest gift the to the museum’s collection and will help scholars understand the importance and influence of a transitional era in games, charting their effect on the development of contemporary examples and on video games.
Darwin Bromley began playing and collecting games with his brother, Peter, […]

Continue Reading about Armchair Generals Past, Present, and Future: A Short History of Wargaming Published on:
January 1, 2020

Playing in the Past
Robert Whitaker
2019 G. Rollie Adams Research Fellow
Research Fellow, The Waggonner Center, Louisiana Tech University, Ruston, LA
To study the early history of digital games is to study games with historical settings. Whether the game was designed for educational use like MECC’s The Oregon Trail, or commercial profit like SSI’s Computer Bismarck, history games are an essential part of the early history of digital games as a medium.

For the past six years I’ve been studying the relationship […]

Continue Reading about Playing in the Past Published on:
December 9, 2019

In the beginning (or at least in the late 19th century), there was film. Capturing moving images and playing them back for astonished audiences at the cinema more than a century ago was magical. Though many people are still familiar with film, which has endured as a medium despite changing technologies, there are plenty of moving image formats which have been rendered obsolete over time and have found their way into the holdings of numerous libraries, archives, and museums.

I previously […]

Continue Reading about What’s Up with U-Matic? Published on:
November 22, 2019

Alec S. Hurley, 2018 Strong Research Fellow
PhD Student, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX

 
 
Despite growing up in Rochester and routinely passing The Strong museum en route to the family business on Oregon Street, I failed to take advantage of the museum’s wonderful exhibits and its abundant collections until late June of 2018. Then, over the course of five days leading up to the July 4th holiday, I was fortunate enough to take a break from my doctoral studies at the […]

Continue Reading about My Week with Brian: A Conversation with the Collected Works of Brian Sutton-Smith Published on:
October 18, 2019

Video games have become increasingly popular over the last few years. In fact, a recent survey suggests that approximately 2/3rds of American adults partake in the pursuit. But even with this emerging success, gaming continues to be dogged by decades-old accusations. Many of the medium’s most ardent critics argue that games offer only vacuous experiences. Lying beyond the pixels, polygons, and interactive scenes is just empty entertainment. Or, even worse, they argue that games are only a vehicle for mindless […]

Continue Reading about “Serious” Fun: Social, Moral, and Political Content in Video Games Published on:
October 4, 2019

In September 2018, I got to spend two weeks engaging with the Stuart Brown and Brian Sutton-Smith papers located in The Strong’s Brian Sutton-Smith Library and Archives of Play. These archival collections encompass the manuscripts, correspondence, unpublished drafts, and personal papers of two prominent play scholars and advocates, Stuart Brown and Brian Sutton-Smith. 

I first became interested in play scholarship and advocacy while working as a playworker in San Diego. While doing this work, I began wondering: What behaviors, actions, […]

Continue Reading about Play Advocacy: Stuart Brown & Brian Sutton-Smith’s Collaboration Published on:
September 27, 2019