Our Collection

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.

Stone, Robert L., 1921-2009 to Jacob Stone and Beatrice Stone

Order a pdf of this item here.

Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC09620.016 Author/Creator: Stone, Robert L., 1921-2009 Place Written: Ellington Field, Texas Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 3 April 1943 Pagination: 2 p. : envelope Height: 26.3 cm, Width: 19.5 cm Order a Copy PDF Download(s): Transcript of document

Addressed to "Dad and Bee." Now at Ellington Field, Texas, the men are kept to a strict routine starting at 5:30AM. They eat breakfast, go to calisthenics, and then go to classes with a lunch break. There is one more hour of drills, supper, and lights are out at 10:00PM. Talks briefly about the tough classes he must take now, even though he has avoided them in college and prep school. The weather is brutally hot, and asks for salt tablets to be sent. It's even tougher as he came from a cold climate. The food is terrific, and rivals that of restaurants in New York City. Warns that he won't be writing during the week as he has to study if he hopes to get by. Asks that the letters continue to come, even if they don't hear from him.

Post-Script: Asks that his letters get passed on to his brothers.

The letter is written on stationary with "PreFlight School, Bombardier, U.S. Army Air Corps, Ellington Field, Texas" printed in dark blue at the top of the letter, with the flyers' wings. The date is written as "Saturday Nite" but "Letters in a Box" notes the letter was written on April 3, 1943.

Stone, Robert L., 1921-2009
Stone, Beatrice Hecht Marks, 1901-1962
Stone, Jacob, fl. 1894-1985

Citation Guidelines for Online Resources