LIBRARY

Welcome to our collection of articles, papers, books and stories about the Mason and Dixon line. Compiled over 25 years on the line...

Report on the Resurvey of the Maryland - Pennsylvania Boundary of the Mason and Dixon Line; 1907 report on the 1901-03 resurvey of the boundary including inventory of the stones with drawings. (23MB)

From Star-gazing to Canal Digging; Article from The Northern Echo, a newspaper based in Northern England covering the homeland of Jeremiah Dixon. The article was published August 7, 2002 and discusses the accomplishments of Jeremiah Dixon and his older brother George. (9MB)

Observations for Determining the Length of a Degree of Latitude in the Provinces of Maryland and Pennsylvania in North America, by Messieurs Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon; Published in the Transactions of the Royal Society January 1768. (4.5MB)

Calculations for the Attraction of a Hill, by Charles Hutton in a letter to Nevil Maskylene; November 11, 1779 letter to Maskelyne relating to the experiment conducted at Schehallien in Scotland. This is the mountain that Charles Mason recommended as the location to conduct the experiment. Mason declined to perform the experiment and it was later performed by Nevil Masklyene, the Astronomer Royal. (0.5MB)

Journal of Mason and Dixon; published transcription of the original Journal of Mason and Dixon by the American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia (23.46MB)

1850 Report of Lt. Col. Graham; Col. Graham’s report on the survey to reestablish the Tangent Point, Meridian Line, Intersection Point and Northeast corner of Maryland (3.72MB)

1883 Report on resurvey of Ohio, New York and West Virginia boundaries (6.90MB)

1903 Report on Resurvey of Allegany and Garrett Counties MD; Published by the Maryland Geological Survey – Includes information about a mound on the Mason and Dixon Line (9.79MB)

1905 account of Virginia boundary controversy; An Historical Sketch by Boyd Crumrine, printed for the Washington County Historical Society (limited information about Mason Dixon Line (4.71MB)

A Note on Charles Mason's Ancestry; by H. W. Robinson Lately Librarian of the Royal Society of London (30.17KB)

An Early Episode in career of Mason & Dixon; by R. Heathcote Heindel University of Pennsylvania (25.50KB)

Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon; By Thomas D. Cope Department of Physics, University or Pennsylvania (85.75KB)

Charter of the Province of Pennsylvania (25.23KB)

Charter of Delaware (15.23KB)

Charter of Maryland (24.74KB)

Collecting Source Material about Charles Mason; by Thomas D. Cope Professor of Physics, University of Pennsylvania (40.03KB)

Evolution of the Mason and Dixon Line; by Morgan Poitiaux Robinson. - reprinted from the April and May, 1902, numbers of the, Oracle Magazine, Richmond, Virginia. (3.54MB)

Fact and Fiction; by Wilhelm Schmidt, MA, PLS (39.98KB)

Good Horses and Agreeable Companions; The Search for the Observatory in Ye Forks of the Brandiwine; By Todd M. Babcock, PLS Athens, PA (2.92MB)

GPS Longitude Values; by Robert Mentzer, An analysis of the Longitude values for the stones on the West line (24.14KB)

How Mason and Dixon Ran Their Line; by Robert Mentzer, An analysis of the methods used to survey the line and the affect gravity had on the final location of the line. (100.65KB)

Jeremiah Dixon (1733-1779) - a Biographical Note; H. W. Robinson Lately Librarian of the Royal Society of London (32.97KB)

Jeremiah's Theodolite; By Edwin Danson (23.68KB)

The History of Mason and Dixon's Line; Contained in an address, delivered by John H. B. Latrobe, of Maryland, before The Historical Society of Pennsylvania, November 8, 1854. (63.59KB)

Mason and Dixon and Franklin; By Thomas D. Cope, University of Pennsylvania (27.64KB)

More about Mason and Dixon; By Thomas D. Cope, University of Pennsylvania (8.08KB)

National Register - Brown's Hill; Copy of the document placing the stone on the National Register of Historic Places (261.36KB)

National Register - DE-MD and DE-PA stones; Copy of the document placing all of the stones set by Mason and Dixon on the National Register of Historic Places (368.29KB)

Reply to Questions; Thomas D. Cope reference to articles (19.17KB)

Mason, Dixon and the HMS Seahorse Transit of Venus Expedition; By J. Donald Fernie, Transits, Travels and Tribulations, II, portion of the article describes the attack upon the HMS Seahorse during the expedition to observe the Transit of Venus in 1761. (104.77KB)

Stargazers, Axmen and Milkmaids; Todd M. Babcock, PLS (196.87KB)

Surveying Mason and Dixon's Line - What did it cost?; By Robert Bechtol, An analysis performed in 2002 to determine the cost of the survey in modern values. (10.51KB)

T. Robert Bechtol’s Baltimore County Inventory of the stones; 1989 (644.36KB)

T. Robert Bechtol’s Cecil County Inventory of the stones; 1989 (1.02MB)

T. Robert Bechtol’s Harford County Inventory stones; 1989 (847.00KB)

The Apprentice Years of Mason and Dixon; By Thomas D. Cope, University of Pennsylvania (63.40KB)

The Dixons of Cockfield; Lecture given by George W Dixon, JP, (4x-Great Grandson of George Dixon - Jeremiah Dixon's elder brother) to the Darlington Historical Society on Wednesday 18 March 1998. (703.38KB)

The Evolution of the Mason and Dixon Line (3.54MB)

The First Scientific Expedition; By Thomas D. Cope, University of Pennsylvania (0.99MB)

The Maryland-Pennsylvania and the Maryland-Delaware Boundaries; The Maryland Board of Natural Resources, William H. Bayliff (5.18MB)

The Mason and Dixon Line, A Story for the Bicentenary; Pennsylvania Department of the interior 1962 (12.34MB)

The McLean family and the Mason-Dixon Line; By Robert M. Torrence, published in the Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine, 1957 (47.16KB)

The NGS Data Sheets for line data only; a listing of all of the Mason Dixon stones which have USC&GS disks on the stones, compiled by Todd M. Babcock (130.33KB)

The Stargazer's Stone; By Thomas D. Cope, University of Pennsylvania, 1939 (87.78KB)

The Ticking Stone; Folklore story from Tales of the Chesapeake – 1880 (615.67KB)

The Work of Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon; By Edwin Danson, United Kingdom, presented at the FIG XXII International Congress Washington, D.C. USA, April 19-26 2002 (268.37KB)

Westward Five Degrees of Longitude; By Thomas D. Cope, University of Pennsylvania (37.47KB)

What is The Latitude of the Post Marked West?; By Robert Mentzer (10.28KB)

Zenith Sectors and Discoveries made with them; By Thomas D. Cope, University of Pennsylvania, Reprinted from the Proceedings of the Pennsylvania Academy of Science, pages 72-75. Vol. XVIII. 1944 (11.36KB)

1901 New York Times Article; New York Times article regarding the resurvey of Mason and Dixon's Line. 1901 (83KB)

The Evolution of the Mason and Dixon Line; By Morgan Poitiaux Robinson, reprinted from the Numbers of the oracle Magazine, 1902 (680KB)

The Role of the Royal Society in the Mason and Dixon Survey; By John Skertich, April 1993 (2.4MB)

A Sketch of the famous Mason and Dixon Line; By Alice M. Heaven, 1927 (960KB)

Border Romance; The Story of the Exploits of Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon; By Earl Schneck Miers, 1965 (1.1MB)

Maryland Historical Magazine - The Potomac River and Maryland's Boundaries; By Carl Everstine, Winter Issue, 1985 (1.0MB)

1950 report - Maryland Board of Natural Resources - The MD-PA and MD-DE Boundaries; By William H. Baliff, July , 1959 (4.6MB)

Observations of Planetary Transits made in Ireland; By C. J. Butler, Armagh Observatory, 2004 (535KB)

Charles Mason letter to Hugh Hammersly January 29 1768 (transcribed); Transcribed by Wil Dinfelder (535KB)

The Bounds of Delaware; By Dudley Lunt, 1947(3.9MB)

Jeremiah Dixon from the Scientific monthly; Letter to Editor regarding a different Jeremiah Dixon (41KB)

Some Local Scholars who Counselled the Proprietors of Pennsylvania during the Boundary Surveys of the 1760s; By Thomas D. Cope from the Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, August, 1955 (447KB)

When the Maryland-Pennsylvania Boundary Survey changed from Political to Scientific project; By Thomas D. Cope and H.W. Robinson from the Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, December, 1954 (595KB)

Calculations to Determine What point in the Side of a Hill its Attraction Will be greatest - letter from Charles Hutton to Nevil Maskelyne; Philosophical transactions, 1779 (305KB)

John Bird 1709-1776 Mathematical Instrument Maker in the Strand; By C. D. Hellman, ISIS, 1932 (833KB)

Observations for Proving the Going of Mr. Ellicott's Clock at St. Helena, by Charles Mason; By Charles Mason before the Royal Society, May 1762 (109KB)

Observations Made in the Forks of the Brandywine; By Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, Read before the Royal Society, December 15, 1768 (302KB)

Observations Made on the Island of Hammerfost, for the Royal Society; By Jeremiah Dixon, Read before the Royal Society, 1769 (187KB)

When the Stars Interrupted the Running of a Meridian Line Northward up the Delmarva Peninsula; By Thomas D. Cope, proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, December 1956 (479KB)

Mason and Dixon's Line, Boundary Controversy between Pennsylvania and Virginia; By James Veech, 1857(3.96MB)

Jeremiah Dixon's Will (transcription); December, 1779 - Includes information from the Wills of other Dixon relatives and John Raylton (3.18MB)

Jeremiah Dixon's Will (image of original); December, 1779 - Reproduced by permission of Durham University Library (2.96MB)

Mason and Dixon Line; By J. H. Stoner, read before the Kittochtinny Historical Society, October 25, 1923 (5.67MB)

The Accompt of the Hands Settling the line between Pennsylvania and Maryland; Summary of the ledgers for the survey during years 1765 & 1767, By Alvah John Washington Headlee, Feb., 1976 (1.6MB)

Mason & Dixon; Their line and its Legend; By A. Hughlett Mason & William F. Swindler, American Heritage Magazine, February 1964 (62KB)

Maryland Assembly reference to the Stone Monuments left behind at Fort Frederick, MD; March 1874 (19KB)

Correspondence from Charles Mason to Benjamin Franklin and Letter from Franklin to Tench Coxe requesting an order for the burial of Mason at Christ Church Cemetery in Philadelphia; October 1768, Papers of Benjamin Franklin (18KB)

The Man on the Map; By Alan Readdie, by permission of the author as originally published in the "Journal of Northumberland and Durham Family History Society, Volume 21, number 2, Summer 1996"(4.42MB)

The Mason Dixon Mile; By B. K. Meade, Article from the December 1976 issue of Surveying and Mapping Magazine (3.91MB)