Library of Congress to show 1st US map after sale

WASHINGTON – A Washington businessman is loaning the first U.S. map printed in North America to the Library of Congress after buying it for $1.8 million.

The library announced Monday that David Rubenstein bought the 1784 map at auction in December. It had been held by the New Jersey Historical Society since 1862.

The map by Abel Buell is considered the best preserved of the few copies that still exist. It is the first map copyrighted in the United States and was published just six months after the Revolutionary War ended.

It's called "A New and Correct Map of the United States of North America Layd Down from the Latest Observations and Best Authorities Agreeable to the Peace of 1783."

Rubenstein is a co-founder of the private investment firm Carlyle Group.