$10 million latest gift from Patriotic Mega-Philanthropist David M. Rubenstein helps preserve collective memories representing entire societies, important moments in history and individual lives

Manuscript treasures including Abraham Lincoln’s handwritten draft of the Gettysburg Address, a map from the Lewis and Clark Expedition, and lyrics from The Sound of Music are among more than 120 items in the new Libary of Congress exhibition Collecting Memories.

Opening June 13 as the inaugural exhibition in the new David M. Rubenstein Treasures Gallery in Washington, DC and on view through December 2025, Collecting Memories will explore how cultures preserve memory, including the role of the Library in preserving collective memories representing entire societies, important moments in history and individual lives.

The new gallery is devoted to ongoing exhibitions that showcase treasures from across the national library’s collections. It’s the first major component of a multiyear plan, known as A Library for You, to create a new visitor experience with new galleries, exhibitions and interactive spaces.

Highlights include:

Abraham Lincoln’s handwritten draft of the Gettysburg Address in 1863

a letter to Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton from her father, documenting the threat of yellow fever in 1801, from the papers of Alexander Hamilton

a landmark first map of the newly independent United States compiled, printed and published in America by an American, Abel Buell in 1784

the first printed map showing reasonably accurate geographic information about the Western U.S., from the expedition of Lewis and Clark, published in 1814

a unique dress made of 45 paper scrolls containing poems and illustrations paying homage to Cuban and American women poets, created by Ruth Behar and Rolando Estévez Jordán

Omar ibn Said’s handwritten autobiography in Arabic from 1831, telling the story of how he was captured in West Africa, enslaved and brought to South Carolina, the only known memoir of its kind

pioneering civil rights and women’s rights activist and educator Mary Church Terrell’s draft for her autobiography A Colored Woman in a White World

playwright Neil Simon’s notebook including The War of the Rosens and what appears to be his first notes for what would become Brighton Beach Memoirs

Sigmund Freud’s papers documenting his thoughts on how the brain processes memories

one of the earliest printed texts in a North American Indigenous language, a dual-language catechism written in both Spanish and Timucua, a complex and now extinct language, by Franciscan missionary Francisco Pareja in 1627

the camera owned by groundbreaking photographer Frances Benjamin Johnston, among the first American women to achieve prominence as a photographer

Oscar Hammerstein’s lyric sheet working out the words for the song Do-Re-Mi during the creation of the musical The Sound of Music

“The stories told by these items still inspire and amaze, decades or even centuries after they were created,” said Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden. Philanthropist David M. Rubenstein, who made a transformational lead gift of $10 million to support the visitor experience project, added: “I think it’s important to preserve America’s treasures because the human brain still operates more effectively when it sees something for real.”

In December 2007 Rubenstein purchased the last privately owned copy of Magna Carta at Sotheby’s auction house in New York for $21.3 million. He has lent it to the National Archives in Washington, D.C. In 2011, Rubenstein gave $13.5 million to the National Archives for a new gallery and visitor’s center.

David M. Rubenstein is Co-Founder and Co-Chairman of The Carlyle Group, one of the world’s largest and most successful private investment firms. Established in 1987, Carlyle now manages $425 billion from 28 offices around the world.

Mr. Rubenstein is a Baltimore native and is the Chairman and CEO of Major League Baseball’s Baltimore Orioles.

Mr. Rubenstein is Chairman of the Boards of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Council on Foreign Relations, the National Gallery of Art, the Economic Club of Washington, and the University of Chicago; a Trustee of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Johns Hopkins Medicine, the Institute for Advanced Study, the National Constitution Center, the Brookings Institution, and the World Economic Forum; and a Director of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Mr. Rubenstein is a member of the American Philosophical Society, Business Council, Harvard Global Advisory Council (Chairman), Madison Council of the Library of Congress (Chairman), Board of Dean’s Advisors of the Business School at Harvard, Advisory Board of the School of Economics and Management at Tsinghua University (former Chairman), and Board of the World Economic Forum Global Shapers Community.

Mr. Rubenstein has served as Chairman of the Boards of Duke University and the Smithsonian Institution, Co-Chairman of the Board of the Brookings Institution, and as a Fellow of the Harvard Corporation.

Mr. Rubenstein is an original signer of The Giving Pledge, a significant donor to all of the above-mentioned non-profit organizations, and a recipient of the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy, and the MoMA’s David Rockefeller Award, among other philanthropic awards.

Mr. Rubenstein is a leader in the area of Patriotic Philanthropy, having made transformative gifts for the restoration or repair of the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, Jefferson Memorial, Monticello, Montpelier, Mount Vernon, Arlington House, Iwo Jima Memorial, the Kennedy Center, the Smithsonian, the National Archives, the National Zoo, the Library of Congress, and the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Mr. Rubenstein has also provided to the U.S. government long-term loans of his rare copies of the Magna Carta, the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Emancipation Proclamation, the 13th Amendment, the first map of the U.S. (Abel Buell map), and the first book printed in the U.S. (Bay Psalm Book).

Mr. Rubenstein is the host of The David Rubenstein Show: Peer-to-Peer Conversations on Bloomberg TV and PBS, Bloomberg Wealth with David Rubenstein on Bloomberg TV, and Iconic America: Our Symbols and Stories with David Rubenstein on PBS; and the author of The American Story: Conversations with Master Historians, a book published by Simon & Schuster in October 2019, How to Lead: Wisdom from the World’s Greatest CEOs, Founders, and Game Changers, a book published by Simon & Schuster in September 2020, The American Experiment: Dialogues on a Dream, a book published by Simon & Schuster in September 2021, and How to Invest: Masters on the Craft, a book published by Simon & Schuster in September 2022.

Mr. Rubenstein is a 1970 magna cum laude graduate of Duke University, where he was elected Phi Beta Kappa. Mr. Rubenstein graduated in 1973 from the University of Chicago Law School, where he was an editor of the Law Review.

From 1973-1975, Mr. Rubenstein practiced law in New York with Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. From 1975-1976, he served as Chief Counsel to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Constitutional Amendments. From 1977-1981, during the Carter Administration, Mr. Rubenstein was Deputy Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy. After his White House service and before co-founding Carlyle, Mr. Rubenstein practiced law in Washington with Shaw, Pittman, Potts & Trowbridge (now Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman).

Mr. Rubenstein, one of the most consequential philanthropists in the world appeared on several covers of Lifestyles Magazine/Meaningful Influence over the years.