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At the Institute’s core is the Gilder Lehrman Collection, one of the great archives in American history. More than 85,000 items cover five hundred years of American history, from Columbus’s 1493 letter describing the New World through the end of the twentieth century.

Diamond, Sidney, 1922-1945 to Estelle Spero

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC09120.511 Author/Creator: Diamond, Sidney, 1922-1945 Place Written: Bougainville, Papua New Guinea Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 29 September 1944 Pagination: 5 p. : Height: 20.5 cm, Width: 27 cm Order a Copy

Diamond writes that even though he is unaware of the exact date, he knows that it is Yom Kippur and that he is fasting. He states that, while he realizes that "it's all a bunch of hokum, it's the only way you can show people that you are what you are, and not ashamed of being what you are."

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