The "Greatest Collection You Will Never See"

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Posted By: PASJD

Has anyone seen the Burdick collection at the New York Metropolitan Museum? Read about it at this link. Fascinating.
http://www.oldbaseball.com/refs/burdick.html

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Posted By: warshawlaw

http://www.network54.com/Forum/message?forumid=153652&messageid=1081090494

Hope I got that right. I went to NYC last April to research my boxing card book and was able to view a sizable chunk of the Burdick Collection. The post lists some of my impressions.

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Posted By: barrysloate

I've probably been there close to ten times over the years, but almost entirely in the 1980's when all you had to do was call and make an appointment and show up at that time. What happened is that baseball cards started to become too popular, and too many people were asking to see the collection. Everyone began handling the cards, and it wouldn't surprise me if some have already been stolen and the museum wishes not to admit that. I recall that the 1933 Goudey Lajoie was hinged to an album with adhesive tape, and a friend of mine pointed out to the curator that this was an extremely valuable card that could be ruined. He was asked to write a short noted stating that the card was a great rarity and leave the note as a bookmark so that the museum would remember which card he was referring to. When he returned to the museum some months later, my friend noticed that the note was still there and nothing was done about it. Now the Lajoie had free publicity telling anyone who might be thinking of stealing something that here's the perfect card to swipe- extremely valuable, and easy to remove. I trust the card is still there, but I don't know. The people there have no knowlwdge of what the collection is about, and it is annoying to them when people view it because they have to go to the back room to get the albums and then kind of hover over you while you are there; thus, they can not get their work done. It's easier to view the Spalding collection at the N.Y. Public Library; it doesn't really have cards, but great early photography. Problem is, most of the good stuffed was stolen decades ago, so it's not as interesting to view as it should be. You need an apontment there, too, and a reason for going, but they will ultimately let you look at it.

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Posted By: dennis

if they would hire some expert card collector(s) to photograph all the scarce or rare cards then put up a website so collectors would have access to see them. a big task! seems like this collection deserves a museum of its own. too bad they didn't have ultra pro pages back then.it really shocked me when i first heard they were all glued down.

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Posted By: Jimmy Leiderman

I was able to examine the photograph boxes in person, back in October.
Amazing material and many photographs have been recovered after being "lost".
One good thing is that the photo collection has been completely digitized and is already available to view on NYPL computers as a beta test, and probably just a few months away from being uploaded for public access.

Drop me a line if you need any tips on how, where and what to look at the NYPL.

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Posted By: Robert A

Boxingcardman...what an interesting experience...you should write a short article about your experience viewing the collection.

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Posted By: warshawlaw

I submitted it to VCBC but never heard back from them...and I don't expect I ever will...maybe Old Cardboard would want it?

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Posted By: Tom Boblitt

send it to Oldcardboard................I bet Lyman would print it. Needs to be in print.....