George Washington’s first career was as a surveyor and mapmaker. He participated in his first surveying expedition when he was 15 years old. Two years later, he was appointed surveyor for the newly created frontier county of Culpeper, Virginia. By the time of his death, he had surveyed more than 200 tracts of land and owned almost 70,000 acres. On display is his survey of a plot of land in Virginia for his brother Lawrence (1718–1752). Gift of André de Coppet, Class of 1915. André de Coppet Collection, Manuscripts Division.
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From 1763 to 1768, Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon surveyed the boundary lines between Pennsylvania and Maryland, and between Maryland and Delaware. Drawn and signed by both men, this map shows the eastern section of the boundary. The first official use of the term “Mason’s and Dixon’s Line” appeared over fifty years later in the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which decreed that slavery would be prohibited above the line and allowed below it. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John H. Doran, in memory of their son, Joseph I. Doran II, Class of 1935. Manuscript Maps Collection, Manuscripts Division.