Burdick Collection

[steve_a]

I have the opportunity to check out the Burdick collection at the met for the first time this weekend. Does anyone know what is currently on display or have any favorites to take notice of? Thanks in advance-

[Leon]

I would love to see his collection. I can't help with what is out now but maybe someone will know how to find out (call them?). Please give us a report if you go...LL

[ullmandds]

If u just show up without an invitation to view the collection you will see whatever they have on display at the time. The last time I was there they focused on female baseball cards and non sports cards...I was not happy!!!

I have seen the Wagner there on display many years ago...but it can be anything...and I don't think they display the wagner often.

Also sometimes they will have somewhat of a chronology...which is nice...showing cards from the beginnings to 30's. Take some pics.

The exhibit is tucked in a little hallway near american furniture I believe.

[barrysloate]

Steve- there is always a small display of Burdick material just steps away from the room that houses the collection. But the display is minimal and will only take you a moment or two to view. The actual collection of albums that Burdick put together is in a special room, just behind all those musical instruments (you'll see when you get there). That is of course by appointment only.

Please note that while a visit to the collection is a great experience that every serious collector should enjoy, don't expect to find every baseball card ever issued. In that respect you will be disappointed. Just look at whatever you can and take it all in. Highlights include his Old Judges, and some very nice tobacco, candy, and gum sets. But you won't find everything you want. It's a mixed bag in that respect.

[RaidonCollects]

I heard they alternate his display in the American Wing of the Met every 3 months. I think the Wagner is on permanent display, not sure though.

~Owen

[Bestdj777]

I went this summer and the Wagner was out, for whatever that is worth.

[atx840]

Thanks for sharing Steve, hopefully this summer I will get to go.

[MW1]

I know they're only "baseball cards" but I think the Metropolitan Museum of Art could do a lot more with the display of its Burdick collection. I also think they severely underestimate the level of public interest if they were to exhibit the Honus Wagner along with the right combination of other cards of well-known players (e.g., 1952 Topps Mantle, 1914 CJ Cobb, 1916 Sporting News Ruth, etc.) in a more prominent place in the museum. I've listened to some of their curators speak about Burdick's cards and perhaps they just don't have anyone on staff who can truly appreciate what they've got.

[sgbernard]

Steve, thanks for these wonderful photos.

Guys, remember that these cards are prints, photographs, chromolithographs, etc. They are paper, and it is (good) conservation policy not to display paper objects in galleries with natural sunlight, and also to rotate them on and off display regularly to protect their condition and vibrancy. The Met has the best print, drawing and photo collection in the US, and you won't see the famous Albrecht Durer prints, Leonardo drawings, Ansel Adams photos, etc. regularly on display either, and that's done for conservation reasons. Even the museum's main print and photo gallery is essentially a hallway between two painting galleries without windows, where paper objects are unlikely to be damaged by natural light. By contrast, the American Art gallery (where Burdick's cards could well belong) is very well lit with natural light. So, putting them where they are, and rotating them on and off display is not necessarily done as a slight to the cards; it's done to protect them.

As for uninformed people in galleries not knowing a thing about the cards, the Met's staff of curators is not regularly wandering the galleries. If you're finding someone to ask about the cards, you're likely finding one of the wonderful employees who works as a gallery guard, or a volunteer leading a tour. Neither has any reason to be trained about baseball cards, or frankly the history of any object chosen at random, so it's a bit unfair to blame them for that fact.

A world class museum like the Met is not going to have a huge tourist bump for Burdick's cards. That's just the truth. Even if 100 of us suddenly decided to drop everything and head to Fifth Ave. for an afternoon to see Burdick's Wagner, it wouldn't be a noticeable bump in a museum that gets more than 5 million people a year. Wouldn't it be cool to see a baseball show at the Met, but it's an art museum.

I think it's worth remembering that Burdick was not just a baseball card collector, but he was a card collector, and he did remarkable things in terms of cataloguing such cards and advancing appreciation of them beyond those of us who look to him as a foundational bball card collector. It is a great thing that his collection, all of it, is kept safe in one of the world's premiere art museums. It means that each one of your cards is also "art." I think it brings great prestige to our own collections that they are displayed among the sort of objects in that museum. I also think that we all (mostly, except for the very rarest cards) collect multiples, and if you're dying to see one of the 50+ T206 Wagners in person, chances are very good that an auction house at a major show will have one on display in the next two years. (That's how I've seen them.) I think some of the complaints about a travesty or mishandling of the collection are unjustified. I once worked at the Met, so I'm partial, but that's my two (ten?) cents anyway.

[obcbobd]

Thanks for posting the pictures.

Does anyone know how the cards are mounted for display? Are the backs very damaged?

thanks

Bob