The Ted Z./ Corey R. Shanus Met Burdick Story.

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Posted By: FYS

Courtesy of Beckett:


Where the Greatest Collections Reside
By Andy Broome, Beckett Vintage Grading

The Father of card collecting in the U.S. is Jefferson R. Burdick. Not only did he put together the greatest trading and post card collection in the country, Burdick created the catalog and designations for card sets that we reference to this day. T-206, T-205, E-90, R301? Not just catchy names. These are all catalog designations assigned by Burdick in his American Card Catalog first published in 1939. (Sidenote: Burdick did not name the "N" designation. Burdick merely designated 19th century tobacco sets by a number. Only later did collectors add the "N" for 19th century tobacco cards.)

Mr. Burdick amassed a collection of sports, non-sport, postcards and more spanning the 19th century up until the 1960's. It is interesting to note that Burdick's focus was never specifically baseball cards. Burdick was a collector of all types of trading cards. Jefferson wanted to leave his collection to a museum for everyone when he died. He found the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City willing to house is 300,000 plus collection of pieces of cardboard. Burdick spent the last 15 years of his life mounting his collection in albums. Each card had to be organized and pasted into the albums. Jefferson did almost all of the work himself. While this was no small feat to accomplish by anyone, Burdick suffered from severe arthritis. Even writing small notes about card sets was a painful and tedious task. As his health continued to decline, Jefferson rushed to complete the cataloging of his collection before he died. Burdick died in 1963.

The collection was now in the hands of the Met. The problem was, the Met did not fully understand nor appreciate what they had just acquired. For years the collection was not protected from the public. Key cards were lifted from the pages and walked right out the door. Until the late 1980's, the collection was readily accessible. All one needed to do was make an appointment. With the big baseball card boom of the late 1980's, the requests for seeing the baseball card portion of the collection became a burden on the Met. Albums were damaged and an unknown number of cards were stolen, possibly including a rare 1933 Goudey LaJoie. The LaJoie was supposedly mounted via a tape hinge attached to the back of the card leaving the card just hanging on an album page. An expensive target a little too tempting for grubby little hands. The museum did the easiest preventive measure they knew, they restricted access to the collection to only people conducting legitimate research. Even then, the baseball portion was off-limits.

Today, the collection is all but hidden from the general masses. Based on accounts of visitors to the collection, it is difficult to actually view even parts of the collection. One interested in viewing the collection can contact the Met for an appointment. When entering the viewing area, items such as bags, cameras and pens are to be left outside. Forms must be filled out and ID must be shown. Once inside, asking the attendant to see the book of all those T206's in it will get you a blank stare. The museum has cataloged the cards according to a pamphlet prepared by Burdick and the museum. The pamphlet lists how the albums are arranged. Even with this directory, some have said the collection is still hard to navigate. There are vague descriptions and boxes of cards. The museum really does not know what is in the collection.

It is my hope that one day the Burdick collection will find a proper home where not only will it be cared for and displayed but cataloged and inventoried. I have heard collectors say the Baseball Hall of Fame would be the proper place. While that sounds like a perfect scenario, the Hall has limited room. Time will tell what happens to the collection. Whether or not the Met sells the collection or permanently loans the collection out remains to be seen.