Our friend Tony Campbell has added a Latest News page to his awe-inspiring Map History/History of Cartography site, where he plans to bring news items to our attention. (Let the duel of Google Alerts commence!)

Anyway, he’s just started, but amongst the stories he’s linked to so far is this one, in today’s Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, about the purchase by well-known map dealer Graham Arader of a 221-year-old original map of Pittsburgh at the “bargain” price of $55,000. From the article: “The heavily creased parchment map was made in 1784 by Col. George Woods, and was known as Penn’s Charter of Pittsburgh. It’s one of three hand-drawn maps made at the behest of Tench Francis, an agent for the William Penn family.” Arader, who hopes that the map will stay in Pennsylvania after it’s sold, will keep it in his Philadelphia gallery.

(Arader’s come to my attention before as a commentator in map theft cases, both as a featured interviewee in Miles Harvey’s Island of Lost Maps and in news coverage of the Forbes Smiley case — here and here — but in addition to stirring the pot with his blunt talk about the business, he’s also got galleries in four cities and does $30 million in sales each year, according to the article.)

Update: Also picked up, via the AP wire, by the Wilkes-Barre Times-Leader (via GeoCarta).