Gridiron Cards at the Met: Grange, Thorpe, Washington, Unitas and Rockne
Goudey Gum Company, Sport Kings, 1933; Red Grange
The Jefferson R. Burdick Collection, Gift of Jefferson R. Burdick
Exhibition location: Robert Wood Johnson Jr. Gallery, Gallery 690
In conjunction with this year's Super Bowl — the first ever to be played in the New York area — The Metropolitan Museum of Art will display a selection of vintage football cards from its celebrated Jefferson R. Burdick Collection of printed ephemera. Opening January 23, 2014, Gridiron Greats: Vintage Football Cards in the Collection of Jefferson R. Burdick will feature some 150 football cards printed between 1894 and 1959.
The Burdick Collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art represents the life work of a man devoted almost entirely to collecting and cataloguing trade cards and other types of paper collectibles.
Goudey Gum Company, Sport Kings, 1933; *Jim Thorpe
The Jefferson R. Burdick Collection, Gift of Jefferson R. Burdick
Amassed by Jefferson R. Burdick (1900-1963) who began collecting Amercian ephemera when he was ten years old, his is the finest collection of American trade cards in the United States. Ephemera in the Burdick Collection ranges from advertisements for meat products, milk and bread, women's clothing and shoes, stoves, pianos, cigars, candy, to postcards and playing cards, greeting and souvenir cards, to paper dolls.
So absorbed was Burdick by his passion for collecting that he devised a system for categorizing trade cards that was published as The American Card Catalogue in 1939. Subsequent editions appeared every few years until 1960; his system remains in use today.
Highlights include football cards from 1894 by the tobacco company Mayo — the first such cards to be produced. The rare John Dunlop (Harvard) card will be shown, along with other early collegiate standouts.
The exhibition will also feature Hall of Famers such as coach Knute Rockne, Red Grange and his teammate the powerhouse Bronko Nagurski, Jim Thorpe, and Sid Luckman; New York icons such as Frank Gifford, Tom Landry, Charlie Conerly, and Emlen Tunnell; and lesser-known players, coaches, and owners.
Editor's Note: * Considered the best all-around athlete of modern times, Native American James "Jim" Thorpe won gold medals in both the pentathlon and the decathlon in the 1912 Stockholm Summer Olympics. Scandal struck in late January 1913 when he was stripped of his titles by the Amateur Athletic Union after admitting he had played professional baseball prior to the Games. Within days of the judgement, however, Thorpe had signed on with the New York Giants and went on to play years of professional baseball, football, and basketball. — From the Library of Congress, Topics in Chronicling America
Another highlight will be two cards depicting Kenny Washington. As a student at UCLA, Washington played alongside Jackie Robinson, who broke the color barrier in professional baseball in 1945. The following year, Washington himself became the first African American to sign a contract with a National Football League team after integrated teams were reinstated.
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