Gridiron Greats

If last night's Super Bowl disappointed, take heart. A better football display is just over the river at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Gridiron Greats: Vintage Football Cards in the Collection of Jefferson R. Burdick features 150 vintage cards, printed between 1894 and 1959. Highlights include early collegiate cards and Hall of Famers like Knute Rockne, Red Grange, and Jim Thorpe (seen here at left.) The entire Burdick collection of printed ephemera is enormous, including 30,000 baseball cards alone.

The exhibit remains on view through February 10. A shortened "itinerary" from the exhibit's curator, Freyda Spira, is online, showing some great old football images, from an early jersey to the rare collegiate card of Harvard's John Dunlop.

Image:
Goudey Gum Company, Sport Kings, 1933
Jim Thorpe
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Jefferson R. Burdick Collection, Gift of Jefferson
R. Burdick (Burdick 326, R338)
Digital Image: © The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York