Got 40G? Own a piece of the fabric of U.S. history

A 9-inch piece of silk brocade that once was part of one of Martha Washington's dresses is for sale by the Raab Collection, a Philly historical-documents dealer, for $40,000.
A 9-inch piece of silk brocade that once was part of one of Martha Washington's dresses is for sale by the Raab Collection, a Philly historical-documents dealer, for $40,000.
BY HALEY KMETZ, kmetzh@phillynews.com215-854-5926
Posted: February 08, 2012

Passed down by descendants of the nation's first first lady, a 9-inch swatch of silk brocade from one of Martha Washington's dresses ended up with family friend Alden Freeman. In 1932, he gave it as a gift to Nan Britton, a woman involved in the first publicized presidential sex scandal.

And now you can claim the fabric as your own. Wednesday, it was offered for sale for $40,000 by the Philly-based Raab Collection, which has it in a vault.

It may be the only Martha Washington dress snippet ever put on the market. "In our experience, this is unique," Nathan Raab, the collection's vice president, told the Daily News.

In 1927, Britton self-published a book that described her affair with President Warren G. Harding and claimed he was the father of her daughter, Elizabeth Ann. That claim has never been proved.

Included in the asking price is a letter in which Freeman expressed his interest in giving the fabric to Britton because of her "efforts to secure justice not only for President Harding's daughter but for all other wronged and disinherited children of unmarried mothers."

Raab, a trustee of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, said the price is in line with the collection's inventory, which included a Susan B. Anthony letter that sold for $20,000 and documents written by Abraham Lincoln offered at prices as high as $1 million.

Last month, the Raab Collection made national headlines after the National Archives and Records Administration released a newly discovered flight-deck recording from the Air Force One flight that carried John F. Kennedy's body and the new president, Lyndon B. Johnson, from Dallas to Washington in November 1963. Raab had found the recording in the estate of a Kennedy military aide.

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