Baseball Cards from the Collection of Jefferson R. Burdick

The Jefferson R. Burdick collection of ephemera at The Met contains one of the most distinguished collections of historical baseball cards anywhere in the world. In 1947, Burdick (1900–1963), an electrician from Syracuse, New York, and avid collector of ephemera, began to donate in large batches his holdings of more than 300,000 trade cards, postcards, and posters to the Museum. Included in the donation were more than 30,000 baseball cards dating back to the 1880s.

This exhibition features over one hundred cards dating from the nineteenth century to the 1950s. Produced using a variety of printing techniques and in a range of styles, the cards feature legends of the game from a bygone era.