Hand-drawn Mason-Dixon Line map goes to auction with $800,000–$1.2M estimate

Mixed · 2A hand-drawn chart of the Mason-Dixon Line, the boundary that came to divide free states from slave states, goes up for auction on Thursday in a livestreamed sale. 1 2 Mixed · 2Lauren Brunk, vice president of Brunk Auctions in Asheville, North Carolina, estimates it could fetch $800,000 to $1.2 million for an anonymous seller. 1 2 Mixed · 2The map is a linen-backed strip of paper 76 inches (193 cm) long and 6.5 inches (16.5 cm) tall, now remounted on backing made of Japanese rice paper. 1 2

Mixed · 2It comes from the survey by Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, which was originally meant to settle a border dispute between the colonies of Maryland and Pennsylvania. 1 2 Mixed · 2The line later took on a different meaning when the 1820 Missouri Compromise used it to set the limits of slavery, and it became synonymous with the divisions that led to civil war about four decades later. Brunk noted that the line was not drawn for that reason. 1 2 Mixed · 2Soon after it was drawn, the map was given to the family of attorney Benjamin Chew, who represented the descendants of Pennsylvania founder William Penn. The family kept it until 1982, when publisher Malcolm S. Forbes bought it for $360,000, outbidding the Library of Congress, in what was said to be the highest auction price then paid for an American map. 1 2

Mixed · 2The map changed hands again in 2002, and a vertical section showing the Delaware-Maryland border is held at Princeton University. 1 2 Mixed · 2Brunk said she contacted the Library of Congress to let it know the map was returning to market, and that officials said that, with budgets as they are, they were not in a position to buy it. She added that the library would be happy to have it if a donor bought it on its behalf. 1 2 Mixed · 2A popular theory holds that the term "Dixie" comes from Dixon, though its true origin is disputed. 1 2