It’s perhaps the most consequential map in American historical past. And it could be yours.

The hand-drawn chart of the Mason-Dixon Line that finally divided the free from the slave states is going up for public sale. Remounted on backing made of Japanese rice paper, the doc will go on sale Thursday in a livestreamed public sale.

“It’s not that often that you can really get this close to something that is so historically important,” said Lauren Brunk, vp of Brunk Auctions in Asheville, North Carolina. “And it was awe-inspiring, really.”

The authentic, hand-drawn survey of the Mason-Dixon Line is displayed at Brunk Auctions in Asheville, NC, Oct. 26, 2026. Brunk Auctions via AP

Brunk estimates it could fetch anywhere from $800,000 to $1.2 million for the nameless vendor.

The survey by Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon was initially meant to settle a border dispute between the then-colonies of Maryland and Pennsylvania.

But when it was used in the 1820 Missouri Compromise to set up the limits of human bondage in the still adolescent United States, it grew to become synonymous with the elementary divisions that exploded into civil struggle 4 a long time later.

“The Mason-Dixon Line that most Americans know is this dividing line between the northern free states and the southern slaveholding states,” Brunk said. “But the line was not drawn for that reason.”

A preferred principle is that the time period “Dixie” comes from Dixon, though the true origin is disputed.

A submit marks the base level in the survey of Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon in Newark, Del. AP Photo/Matt Rourke

Mason and Dixon started their survey a century before the Civil War to settle a border dispute between Pennsylvania and Maryland. AP Photo/Matt Rourke

Soon after it was drawn, the linen-backed strip of paper — 76 inches (193 centimeters) lengthy and 6.5 inches (16.5 centimeters) tall — was given to the household of lawyer Benjamin Chew, who represented the descendants of Pennsylvania founder William Penn.

The map remained in the household’s arms until 1982, when late writer Malcolm S. Forbes outbid the Library of Congress and purchased it for $360,000, Brunk said.

At the time, it was said to have been the highest value ever paid at public sale for an American map.

The map modified arms again in 2002. (A vertical part displaying the Delaware-Maryland border is housed at Princeton University.)

Brunk reached out to officers at the Library of Congress to see if they needed to bid on it again.

“I wanted them to be aware that this was coming back to the market,” she said. “And they said, at this point, budgets being what they are, they were just not in a position to buy it.”

But if some patriot out there needs to buy it on the library’s behalf, Brunk said, “they’d be happy to have it.”