Jefferson R. Burdick (1900–1963) was an American electrician and a collector of 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 Trade involves the transfer of goods and services from one person or entity to another, often in exchange for money. Economists refer to a system or network that allows trade as a market. An early form of trade, barter, saw the direct excha ...

and

baseball cards A baseball card is a type of trading card relating to baseball, usually printed on cardboard, silk, or plastic. In the 1950s they came with a stick of gum and a limited number of cards. These cards feature one or more baseball players, teams, sta ...

in '' The American Card Catalog'', otherwise known as the ''ACC''. Burdick is often considered to be the greatest card collector in history, and has been called "The Father of Card Collecting."

Biography

Early life

He was born in Central Square, New York in 1900. Growing up on a farm, Burdick began collecting cards from soda and tobacco companies as a child, and asked his father to smoke different cigarette brands so he could collect them all. Burdick graduated from Central High School in 1918, and worked as a farm laborer with his family before attending

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York. Established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church, the university has been nonsectarian since 1920. Locate ...

in late 1920. In 1922, he received a two-year business degree from Syracuse University. He held a variety of jobs after graduation, including working in advertising at '' The Syracuse Herald'' before becoming an electrician, which was his primary occupation. He developed

arthritis Arthritis is a term often used to mean any disorder that affects joints. Symptoms generally include joint pain and stiffness. Other symptoms may include redness, warmth, swelling, and decreased range of motion of the affected joints. In som ...

during his thirties, which continued to affect him throughout his life.

Return to collection and publications

Burdick became interested in collecting again in 1933, when he began amassing cards and stamps in earnest. Beginning in 1937, he published a ''Card Collectors Bulletin''. He established his system of cataloguing cards in the ''CCB''. In total, he collected around 306,000 cards which he glued into 394 albums. The reasons why Burdick chose to glue his cards into albums is unknown, as he advised collectors to use corner mounting to preserve cards in the ''CCB''. George Vrechek, in "Burdick Revisted", theorizes that Burdick chose glue to ensure that cards were not lost and the collection remained complete so that posterity could enjoy it. By 1940, Burdick was living as a lodger with a Syracuse family and earned a salary of $1,065 per year as an assembler at Crouse-Hinds Company. Despite his meager wages, he continued to spend the majority of his earnings on publishing his bulletins and growing his collection. Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met) - Central Park, NYC

Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met) - Central Park, NYC

Burdick donated his entire collection to the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

in New York in 1947. Writing in 1948, he stated his belief that it should be "a national collection belonging to everybody." That year, he created a guide to the collection with art historian

A. Hyatt Mayor Alpheus Hyatt Mayor (1901–1980) was an American art historian and curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a leading figure in the study of prints, both old master prints and popular prints. A. Hyatt Mayor's father was marine biologist Alfre ...

that explains the background and organization of the collection.

Later life and continued work at the Met

He retired from Crouse-Hinds in 1959 due to disability, and moved to Madison Avenue where he could be closer to the Met. Burdick spent 15 years working at the museum's drawings and prints department to accomplish the task of cataloging the collection, which he finished in January 1963. He was hospitalized at

Bellevue Hospital Bellevue Hospital (officially NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue and formerly known as Bellevue Hospital Center) is a hospital in New York City and the oldest public hospital in the United States. One of the largest hospitals in the United States ...

in 1962. He died the following year. In 2018, Burdick was posthumously awarded the

Henry Chadwick Award The Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) is a membership organization dedicated to fostering the research and dissemination of the history and record of baseball, primarily through the use of statistics. The organization was founded in ...

by the

Society for American Baseball Research The Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) is a membership organization dedicated to fostering the research and dissemination of the history and record of baseball primarily through the use of statistics. Established in Cooperstown, New ...

(SABR). SABR also created the "Jefferson Burdick Award for Contributions to the Hobby".

The Burdick Collection

The Jefferson R. Burdick collection is the second largest public collection of baseball cards, second only to that of the

National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is a history museum and hall of fame in Cooperstown, New York, operated by private interests. It serves as the central point of the history of baseball in the United States and displays basebal ...

. A small part of the collection 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. The Burdick system is still widely used today by collectors and dealers of baseball memorabilia. The famed

T206 T206 is a tobacco card set issued from 1909 to 1911 in cigarette and loose tobacco packs through 16 different brands owned by the American Tobacco Company. It is a landmark set in the history of baseball card collecting, due to its size and rarity, ...

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

External links

* * Rudnick, Allison. 1900 births 1963 deaths Baseball cards Place of birth missing Place of death missing Deltiologists {{US-baseball-bio-stub Syracuse University alumni People from New York (state) Baseball memorabilia American philatelists American art collectors