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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 #: GLC09120.055 Author/Creator: Diamond, Sidney (1922-1945) Place Written: Edgewood Arsenal, Maryland Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 30 June 1942 Pagination: 8 p. ; 16.7 x 26 cm. Order a Copy

Letter written while on guard duty. Diamond describes a formal dance to mark the opening of the camp's new recreation hall that he had attended the night before. He also runs through the couple's financial situation, having been paid that morning. Discusses the training in communications that he has been receiving. Sidney mentions that Carter, his friend, is a member of the Ku Klux auxiliary in Nashville, Tennessee, and states that he is disgusted by "man's inhumanity to man." Diamond expresses his belief that once the war is over the Civil War should be refought, in order to "really free the slaves of the South."

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