Mason-Dixon Line map sells for $950,000 at auction

An original, hand-drawn survey of the Mason-Dixon Line sold for $950,000 during an auction held by Brunk Auctions in Asheville, North Carolina. The sale involved 45 bidders competing for nearly three minutes, with the price starting at $400,000. The buyer has requested to remain anonymous.

Completed in 1768 by surveyors Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, the map was originally commissioned to resolve a border dispute between the colonies of Maryland and Pennsylvania. Historically, the line became a significant symbol of the division between free and slave states in the United States and was utilized in the 1820 Missouri Compromise to establish the limits of human bondage.

The document is a linen-backed strip of paper measuring 76 inches long and 6.5 inches tall, currently remounted on Japanese rice paper. Previous owners include the late publisher Malcolm Forbes, who purchased it in 1982 for $360,000, and it was later resold in 2002 for $556,000. A separate vertical section of the survey showing the Delaware-Maryland border is held at Princeton University.