First map of the original states.
Created right after the Treaty of Paris, which marked the formal end of the American Revolutionary War, the Buell map shows the 13 new states and territory east of the Mississippi River. Virginia extends from the Chesapeake Bay to the Ohio River.
The map was given to the New Jersey Historical Society in 1862. The Historical Society, in need of cash as a result of draconian budget cuts by New Jersey’s Republican governor, put the map up for auction.
The map was sold to David M. Rubenstein, co-founder and managing director of the Carlyle Group.* Rubenstein is also he chairman of the board of trustees at the Kennedy Center and a member of the Smithsonian Board of Regents.
In recent years, Rubenstein has purchased several seminal historic documents. In a series of loans, he gave a signed copy of the Emancipation Proclamation to the White House, a rare copy of the Declaration of Independence to the State Department and the last privately owned copy of the Magna Carta to the National Archives.
“I just think Americans don’t know enough about their history. Showing documents spurs them to learn more,” Rubenstein said.