Special Collections and Archives
The Nic Costa Archive is a collection of coin-operated and amusement arcade trade artefacts, documents, and memorabilia created by artist, and author of Automatic Pleasures and More Automatic Pleasures, Nic Costa.
The archive includes marketing materials, auction catalogues, advertisements, flyers, photographs and slides, documents, interviews, and other artefacts that trace the development of the international (and primarily British) coin-operated and amusement arcade industry from the late 1800s to the 1970s.
The collection consists of:
- Mutoscope cards
- Photographs of coin-operated machines
- Machine patents and instructions
- Auction and exhibition catalogues
- Trade leaflets
- Newspaper cuttings
- Research notes
- Journals and periodicals
The collection has been catalogued by Nicola Waddington, of Archives Alive along with a team of staff, student and community volunteers. Thanks go to Cam Matthews, Yosselin Claudio Montana, Nadia Davies, Evie Loos-Page, Symona Turkson, Amy Green, Carmel Beatty, Edward and Henry Crowther.
Collection in brief
Contents: correspondence, photographs, magazine articles
Period: 19th-20th century
Subjects: amusement arcades, coin-operated machine history
Access to the collection is during core library hours, between 9.00-5.00 Monday to Friday. Please email library.canterbury@canterbury.ac.uk with your enquiry in advance of your visit.
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