Jefferson Burdick
Jefferson R. Burdick (1900–1963) was a collector of American printed ephemera, including postcards, posters, cigar bands, and other types of printed materials dating from the mid-nineteenth century to the early 1960s. He is best known for collecting trading and baseball cards in The American Card Catalog, otherwise known as the ACC.
Jefferson Burdick | |
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Burdick with his collection | |
Born | 1900 |
Died | 1963 62–63) | (aged
Occupation | Collector |
Known for | Trading cards collector |
Notable work | The American Card Catalog |
Burdick donated his collection to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. A small part of it is on display at the museum on the first floor of the American Wing. Burdick’s donation to the museum included over 300,000 items;however, only a small percentage of the items donated by Burdick were baseball cards. His correspondence reveals that he collected ALL of the cards listed in his publications.Burdick’s cataloging system was introduced in The Card Collector's Bulletin and was already in place and in use by collectors before he moved to New York City. Burdick spent 15 years working at the museum's drawings and prints department to accomplish the task, which he finished in January 1963. He died three months later. His gravestone reads, "One of the greatest card collectors of all times."
The Burdick system is still used today by collectors and dealers. The famed T206 baseball card set received its popularized name from the set's designation in the ACC. Many other baseball card sets are popularly known by their ACC designation, including: T205, E93, M116 and R313.
References
- "Press Release". metmuseum.org. Retrieved August 1, 2007.
- Vrechek, George "Burdick Revisited". oldbaseball.com. Retrieved August 1, 2007.
- Rudnick, Allison. "Baseball Cards in the Jefferson R. Burdick Collection at The Met". metmuseum.org. November 2018. Retrieved January 28, 2020.