George Washington artifact found in Goodwill auction on display at museum

An unusual historical find was made at a Goodwill auction: A piece of fabric once a part of former President George Washington’s tent.

The artifact was discovered and purchased by historical collector Richard “Dana” Moore, who found the 6-inch piece of tent fabric at an online Goodwill auction. While he initially believed it “couldn’t be real,” Moore noticed the fabric did appear “authentically old,” according to Fox News Digital.

Moore said the fabric included a note, which read “a piece of George Washington’s tent, from the history building at Jamestown exposition 1907 property of John Burns, Dec. 23, 1907.”

“The brief handwritten note referencing the Jamestown Exposition of 1907, which was attached with a rusty pin, added to the feeling of age,” he explained. “My gut kept telling me this could be real.”

The piece is currently on display at the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

“The Museum of the American Revolution is honored to display this newly discovered fragment as part of our current special exhibition, Witness to Revolution: The Unlikely Travels of Washington’s Tent,” read a statement from the museum to the Washington Examiner. “Only nine fragments of Washington’s tents are known to exist, all in the collections of museums or other institutions, including three in our Museum’s collection. This is the only known fragment in private hands, though there may be more out there waiting to be discovered.”

Matthew Skic, the museum’s curator of exhibitions, explained that Mary Custis Lee, the great-great-granddaughter of former first lady Martha Washington, owned Washington’s tents from the Revolutionary War in 1907. One of the tents, Washington’s dining tent, was loaned as part of a Jamestown Exposition that year, and a piece of it was cut off as a souvenir.

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“The discovery of this fragment adds to our understanding of the growth of Washington’s tents as symbols of the fragile American experiment in liberty, equality, and self-government,” Skic said in the statement. “The tents, and each fragment of them, serve as tangible links to the founding of the United States. They help us realize the hard work and perseverance that was required to create this nation and is still required to safeguard its future.”

Moore’s wife, Susan Bowen, explained that she was initially skeptical about her husband’s historical purchase but chose to contact the museum in Philadelphia after watching an online presentation from it about the artifact. She has described it as “an honor” to see it on display at the museum.