 Current President of Harvard University and then-Dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study Drew Gilpin Faust suggested the donation after discovering that “Marge” was Buell’s mother.Said Faust, “I was a big Little Lulu fan when I was a kid...[the donation] was a really exciting possibility.His mother was clearly a pathbreaker, both in her creativity in designing the cartoon, the artistry involved, and the proto-feminism in this tough little girl.”

Buell's brother Fred is a published poet and literary critic, and is a professor at Queens College, New York.