Primary and Secondary Sources
Primary Sources
For certain assignments you might be asked to use primary sources. Primary sources are works created at the time of an event, or by a person who directly experienced an event.
It is the content that matters and an on-line source can still be a primary source. For example, an online copy of a newspaper from May 8, 1945, is still a primary source even though the original article has been digitized.
Primary sources can include:
- Interviews, diaries, letters, journals, speeches, autobiographies, and witness statements
- Original hand-written manuscripts
- Government documents and public records
- Art, photographs, films, maps, fiction, and music
- Newspaper and magazine clippings
- Artifacts, buildings, furniture, and clothing
Secondary Sources
Secondary sources are works that are written after the original event or experience; they provide criticism or interpretation of the event or experience.
Some examples of secondary sources are:
- Textbooks
- Biographies
- Historical films, music, and art
- Articles about people and events from the past
Primary vs Secondary Video
Finding Primary Sources
To find primary sources try using Omni, Advanced Search, Subject contains ...
Use keywords for your topic or historic person along with one of the following words:
- archives
- charters
- correspondence
- diaries
- documents
- interviews
- letters
- manuscripts
- notebooks
- oratory
- pamphlets
- personal narratives
- pictorial works
- sources [this term is often used for collections of primary sources]
- speeches
Examples:
Digital Collections Purchased or Leased by TMU that Include Primary Sources
Some digital collections from Adam Matthew Digital that may be useful for historical studies follow:
- China: Trade, Politics and Culture, 1793-1980
- Defining Gender, 1450-1910
- Empire Online
- Mass Observation Online
- Medieval Travel Writing
- Slavery, Abolition, Social Justice
Some of the Alexander Street Press collections may also be useful:
- Black Thought and Culture
- British and Irish Women’s Letters and Diaries
- Classical Scores Library
- Early Encounters in North America
- North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries, and Oral Histories
- North American Indian Thought and Culture
- North American Women’s Letters and Diaries
- Oral History Online
- Smithsonian Global Sound
- Women and Social Movements in the U.S.
Historical Newspapers are listed on the bottom of the page for Journals and Articles.
- English Historical Documents This link opens in a new windowEnglish Historical Documents Online contains over 5,500 indexed and fully searchable primary documents from 500 to 1914. This includes American Colonial Documents, which was previously out of print. The online version of the standard series of primary source documents in British history, conceived in wartime and with volumes published since 1953, can also be found here.Sources include government and cabinet proceedings, military dispatches, newspaper articles, pamphlets, personal and official letters and diaries. It covers political and constitutional topics and social, economic, religious and cultural history.
A Sampling of Freely Accessible Primary Sources
Many governmental bodies, academic and public libraries, museums, and private organizations are creating digital collections. Often access is free of charge. Use a search engine to look for names of countries, provinces/states, cities, organizations, or individuals AND archives.
CANADA:
Toronto Public Library's Digital Archive
UNITED STATES:
Digital Collections (Library of Congress)
AMDOCS: Documents for the Study of American History (University of Kansas)
National Archives (U.S. National Archives and Records Administration)
National Museum of American History (Smithsonian)
Primary Documents in American History (Library of Congress)
United States House of Representatives -- History, Art & Archives (includes oral history)
United States Senate -- Art & History (includes an oral history project)
WORLD:
Avalon Project: Documents in Law, History and Diplomacy (from Yale Law School, includes international Treaties)
