Research Fellow Archive

On October 18, 1958, a curious object appeared at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) during its annual Visitor’s Day. Unlike the static (mainly photo and text) displays arranged to showcase projects from BNL’s different lab divisions, this unnamed object from the Instrumentation Division consisted of a 5½ inch DuMont cathode ray tube X-Y graphic oscilloscope connected to a Donner Scientific Company Model 30 (vacuum tube) analog computer. Upon the small screen, visitors witnessed images of a “net,” “court,” and “ball” […]

Continue Reading about Following The Bouncing Ball: Tennis for Two…at The Strong! Published on:
January 13, 2017

In October 2015, I was awarded a Research Fellowship from The Strong. I had access to the library, the archives, the museum itself, and the seemingly endless rows of shelves full of playthings of the past. Both my 14-year-old self and my current 30-something researcher self were in a happy place. My job is to study video games and teach about them—not a bad gig at all, I must admit—and I have been interested in the history and theory of […]

Continue Reading about A History of Film-to-Game Adaptations: Why I Play, Study, and (Sometimes) Like Bad Games Published on:
October 24, 2016

My love of movable books and of antique toys and games containing the richly colored chromolithographs of the last half of the 1800s brought me to The Strong’s Online Collections. I spent four days “oohing” and “ahhing” over the vast archive of images in the museum’s database before I discovered it was possible to view the actual objects by arranging an appointment or, better yet, applying for a fellowship for an in-depth immersion. Although I learned I was the first […]

Continue Reading about Through the Artist’s Eyes Published on:
July 26, 2016

In November 2015, I came from my home in Turin, Italy, to spend a month at The Strong museum working on my research project, “The Meaning of Toys: Creating and Conveying Knowledge through Playful Artifacts.” I was honored to be granted a  Strong Research Fellowship that financed the first half of my stay.

Continue Reading about From Italy to Rochester, Looking for the Meaning of Play Published on:
June 13, 2016

Recently, debates about women and video games have been making the rounds. The New York Times, Rolling Stone, and the Colbert Report, for instance, have drawn attention to what it can be like for women in gaming communities. They explain that women face a lot of pushback and find themselves viewed as unwelcome visitors in spaces stereotyped as “for the guys.” Along the way, the nature of video games themselves comes under scrutiny—characterized as hyper-masculine, violent, and sexist. In other […]

Continue Reading about Nancy Drew and the Case of the Girl Gamers Published on:
May 25, 2016

The Strong’s research fellowship program not only provides an opportunity for scholars to view rare material in the museum’s collection and archives, but it also expands the potential for the study of play in academia. Being surrounded by the artifacts of play with which we all have experiential knowledge helped me realize the importance of studying play objects and children’s culture. Although my research focuses specifically on Mattel’s historical production of Black Barbie dolls, The Strong reminded me why my […]

Continue Reading about Finding Race and Play at The Strong Published on:
April 1, 2016

Can you get enough of that Sugar Crisp? Does the crunch always give you away? And are Trix just for kids? Cereal slogans have become embedded in popular culture, and even satirized in television shows. Such slogans were made memorable at the time by the cereal mascots that voiced them in animated commercials. However, these slogans were also often splashed across cereal boxes. Lucky the Leprechaun has been promising that his cereal is magically delicious since 1964 (except for a […]

Continue Reading about They’re Gr-r-r-eat! Cereal Box as Serial Docs Published on:
March 15, 2016

As an “everything” intern at The Strong, I had the privilege of working with different teams within the museum on multiple projects that relate to my education as a history major. Through my work with the Brian Sutton-Smith Library and Archives of Play, I became acquainted with the story of the woman behind the museum by examining photographs, diary entries, newspaper articles, and correspondences from different points in her life. Highlights of Margaret Woodbury Strong’s remarkable story can be found […]

Continue Reading about Margaret Woodbury Strong: Collector and Philanthropist Published on:
January 29, 2016

Margaret Strong obviously loved shells and crafts made from shells, judging from the quantity of those items in her collection. In fact, Margaret’s shell collection drew me all the way from my home in Australia to Rochester, New York. While researching The Strong museum’s collection of Victorian shellwork during my research fellowship, I stumbled across a diminutive pair of shell-covered baby booties. The decorative cardboard booties—edged with red velvet fabric and ornamented with shells and shell grit—bear a striking resemblance […]

Continue Reading about Colonial Shell Souvenirs in The Strong: An Australian Connection? Published on:
January 27, 2016