By Candice Ludlow
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wkno/local-wkno-940467.mp3
Memphis, TN – Today, we're going to meet an inveterate collector who's managed to find a way to make a living off of the things he treasures. WKNO's Candice Ludlow headed north from Memphis up Highway 51 to the small town of Halls to meet Murray Hudson.
Hudson's Antiquarian Books, Antique Maps, Prints and Globes shop is on Church Street. In an earlier life, the storefront was the town's post office. The shop's walls and shelves are crammed full of old maps and globes. Hudson says he bought his first map in Oxford, England back in 1964.
"I kept passing everyday by a book and map print store called Saunders on the High, and there were mainly prints in the window," Hudson thought, " They're cheap, they're portable, they'd be good gifts.' So right before I left at the end of the summer I went in, the maps caught my eye. I said, "These look much more interesting to me I bought 50-something maps."
Hudson's wearing a flannel shirt, wire-rimmed glasses and a brown felt hat. His long silver hair is pulled back in a pony tail. The sixth generation farmer, former teacher and recovering stockbroker held onto some of those maps. And about a decade later, Hudson was surprised to find out he had a real treasure.
"Just one of the maps that I bought was half of an extraordinarily rare map that a friend in England still wants, but I have this framed at home," Hudson said. "I was offered like 10 years later the price of the roundtrip air fare to London that I paid maybe three or four dollars for."
Later, after the stock market and Hudson's investments went south in the 70's, he headed back to Dyersburg to take on the family farm.
"When we got rid of the cattle, about five years into the operation, I began doing a lot more traveling and buying and trading maps and atlases " Hudson continues, "so I decided and I thought you could write off all this travel. I didn't know if it would work, but three years into it, it was profitable."
In 1988, he rented the old post office, and he gets some foot traffic, but Hudson's shop is more like a warehouse/office than a retail space, but most of his sales are made over the phone or Internet. For flat maps, he can get anywhere from $25 to $35,000, and $50 to $75,000 for one antique globe.
But money isn't the main thing. Hudson is a collector on a mission - understanding and documenting the history and development of the South and West.
"You could see going from Indian trails and rivers. Then the next development was the stagecoaches and the stagecoach routes and the larger steamboat routes. Then the railroads came right behind them following virtually the same trails, but the topography affected them more. They had to go around the mountains. And then the highways. I sorta cut off at the interstate system," Hudson explains.
Well, that's my cue. It's time to get on the highway and head back to Memphis.
"You never know where you're going to find something. The hunt is one of the enduring joys of doing this is looking for things," Hudson said.
Some people say life is all about the journey. For Hudson, the map is the treasure.