This fabric fragment from George Washington’s tent was found on a auction site — but no one is entirely sure how it got there.
Richard “Dana” Moore was scrolling through a Goodwill auction site two years ago when an object caught his eye: a piece of fabric that had allegedly come from George Washington’s Revolutionary War tent. Though Moore had some doubts about the object’s provenance, he decided to take a chance and bid on it.
To learn more about the fabric, Moore reached out to the Museum of the American Revolution. Experts there examined the scrap and concluded that it had indeed come from one of Washington’s tents.
During the war, the future president traveled with two tents, or marquees: one for dining and one for working and sleeping. Moore’s fabric seemingly came from the dining tent.
So, how did it end up at Goodwill? The only clue is a note that was included with the fabric: “a piece of George Washington’s tent, from the history building at Jamestown exposition 1907 property of John Burns Dec 23rd 07.”
A painting of George Washington in front of one of his tents.
Museum curators suspect that the tents were loaned to the Jamestown Exposition in 1907 by one of Washington’s relatives. At that point, “John Burns” somehow obtained a piece of the artifact. However, his methods remain a mystery.