Richard “Dana” Moore, a digger and amateur collector, first ran into a listing for a scrap of fabric claiming to be a piece of George Washington’s Revolutionary War tent while going through Goodwill’s listing of historic documents two years ago, writes Peter Crimmins for WHYY.

“There was no proof,” said the Virginia man. “There was no documentation saying this is authentic.”

The only authentication was sketchy at best. It was a hand-written note explaining that the piece was acquired in 1907 in Norfolk, Virginia, at the Jamestown 300th anniversary exposition. The note was attached to the textile with a rusty sewing pin.

But despite not having any guarantees, Moore was excited.

“It was a heart thing,” he said. “I was, like, ‘This can’t be.’ And then I thought, ‘OK, I’m doing this.’”

He won the cloth fragment in an auction for $1,300.

To his joy, the piece of cloth was authentic and is now displayed as part of his exhibition, “Witness to Revolution: The Unlikely Travels of Washington’s Tent” at the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia.

The historic fragment is a piece of a dining marquee used by Washington for meals and meetings during the Revolutionary War.

Read more about the historic cloth now on display at the Museum of the American Revolution in WHYY.

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