Visited Burdick's display today at the MET...

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Posted By: Ray Piskadlo

They had ten display cases, each containing cards from his collection. Off the top of my head, the cases had the following:

1. Four Old Judge Cabinet cards, including a Comiskey. GORGEOUS!!!
2. The Honus Wagner T206 card by itself... great shape, looked like a solid 3 at least.
3. About 20 T206 HOF cards including a Plank.
4. 1933? Delong
5. 1935? Goudey Premiums
6. 1939 Play Ball
7. 1940 Play Ball
8. 1951 Bowman
9. 1957 Topps
10. don't remember, but it was from the 30's i believe.

They had a decent write up about Burdick's life next to the cards, but outside of the first three cases, there were no cards of note. It was fun to see my girlfriend's eyes light up when she read what the Wagner was worth. I know someone on the Board was lucky enough to see most of the collection a few years back. It's a shame the MET doesn't display more or at least show more of the rare/key cards. I don't even think they know what they have locked up.

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Posted By: Brian

I am glad they put some of the cards back on display. I went to the Met several months ago, and they had taken down everything from his collection from public view. The last display I saw was a couple of years ago--they had the '33 Goudeys on the wall (perhaps they were sheets; I don't recall).

Where are the cases located? It's usually a real challenge finding the public exhibit--generally near the American furniture installations!
Thanks,
Brian

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Posted By: barrysloate

The bulk of the collection is in a special room on the second floor, but it has become almost impossible to get an appointment to see it. Years ago all you had to do was call and make one and you could spend the day looking through the albums. Not anymore.

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Posted By: bruce dorskind

The name of the room on the Second Floor is the Print Room.

It is in this room where we first met Sir Edward Wharton Tigar in 1979.

On our fourth visit to the collection in 1983, we obtained
a special privately published pamphlet which provides an inside
look at the Burdick Collection.

Through the years we prepared some detailed analysis of Burdick's
baseball card collection including notes on which cards and
sets are not represented.

When we first viewed the collection the "Wagner" was simply in
a protected and covered page. Many other items, now, nearly
priceless, were placed neatly in the albums in the same fashion
as common T 206's and a few strip cards.

In our forthcoming work on the early history of baseball cards"
"When It Was A Hobby" we will include some additional insights
into the collection and a few original notes that were compiled
by Sir Edward Wharton Tigar.

Bruce Dorskind
America's Toughest Want List

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Posted By: Ray Piskadlo

They were in a long corridor on what I believe to be a "mezzanine" level between the 1st and 2nd floors of the American Wing. They were around the corner from a maze of glass, pottery, and plates behind thick glass cases.

The tenth case was 1933 Goudeys, now that you mention it!

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Posted By: peter chao

Guys,

Originally I believe the Burdick collection cards were glued to album pages. When you saw the collection were the cards on album pages or had they been removed from the pages and displayed in plastic slabs.

Perhaps the cards were displayed on both album pages and slabbed.

Peter

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Posted By: joe brennan

Bruce, Do you always travel as a group or do you sometimes go somewhere by yourself?

In Rememberance of James W. Brennan Sr. 1924-1982. Dad, thanks for everything you did for me.

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Posted By: Bob Lamb

Joe,
Your last post was so funny the Coke I was(or is it we were) drinking started coming out of my nose. Thank you for making me(us) laugh this afternoon.

Bob

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Posted By: Dave Williams

Link to article about Burdick, and how his cards got to the Met.

http://www.oldbaseball.com/refs/burdick.html

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Posted By: warshawlaw

the Dorskind twins reference is a guide to the collection at the Met. I have a copy saved in PDF format. I will email a copy to Leon and he can pass it on to whoever wants it, post it here, whatever works best.

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Posted By: peter chao

Dave,

Thanks for the link, very informative.

Peter

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Posted By: Harry Wallace

It has been years since I have seen it, but it is quite a collection.

They seem to be pretty tight with security nowadays. I was told that they had problems at one time with items being stolen. I have also heard that many things were pilfered from the New York Public Library over the years as well.