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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 #: GLC09120.362 Author/Creator: Diamond, Sidney, 1922-1945 Place Written: Bougainville, Papua New Guinea Type: Autograph letter signed Date: February 25, 1944 Pagination: 5 p. : Height: 20.5 cm, Width: 26.5 cm Order a Copy

Diamond describes writing to the wife of one of his men about his death, an experience that made him realize the "ridiculous emptiness of words".

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