A fragment of George Washington’s tent was strangely sold on Goodwill‘s website for a mere $1,700 USD. It’s neither the platform, nor the price you’d expect from a historical artifact once belonging to the first US president, especially one that Washington was encamped in while fighting the British during the Revolutionary War.
Richard “Dana” Moore, a 70-year-old history buff who bought the fragment, was in awe at the sheer ease in buying the item in 2022. “I was like, ‘This can’t be.’ So I was a little bit astonished,” Moore told CNN, even hiding it from his wife Susan, until he did further research to verify its authenticity. Attached to the tent fragment was a small hand-written note that said that it was taken “from the history building at Jamestown Exposition 1907”, and that it was the “property of John Burns Dec 23rd 07.”
Still, how did something with such historical value end up at a thrift shop like Goodwill? While researchers aren’t entirely sure, a report conducted by The Independent traces the artifact back to George Washington Parke Custis — the grandson of Washington’s wife, Martha, who inherited a number of family heirlooms, as Washington and Martha never birthed any children together.
“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,” Matthew Skic, curator at the Museum of the American Revolution, told The Independent. “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.”
The tent fragment is currently on view at the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia as part of the exhibition Witness to Revolution: The Unlikely Travels of Washington’s Tent, until January 5, 2025. Thereafter, it’s likely that Richard and Susan Moore will bring it to auction, which is expected to fetch tens of thousands of dollars.
