HIS 104 Ten Days That Shook the World (Dr. Tunnicliffe)

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

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 of of Omni, Advanced, Subject contains searches:

• africa history sources
• great britain history sources
• india history sources
• united states civil rights history sources

Some digital collections from Adam Matthew Digital  that may be useful for historical studies follow:

• China: Trade, Politics and Culture, 1793-1980
• Empire Online

Some of the Alexander Street Press collections may also be useful:

• Black Thought and Culture
• British and Irish Women’s Letters and Diaries
• Oral History Online
• Smithsonian Global Sound

Historical Newspapers are listed on the bottom of the page for Journals and Articles.

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.

Example Rosa Parks archives

Try searching Google for a topic and the word "sources" or "online resources.

Example french revolution sources

Many universities create topical research guides using the LibGuides platform that TMU has adopted. Look for topical guides from other schools and look for a tab or section highlighting Primary sources.

Example stonewall riots libguides
In this case, several good results are at the top of the list. The first one from Christopher Newport University includes links on the lower left to digial primary sources.

The Internet Archive includes many audio and video clips in addition to books and pamphlets. You may be amazed what turns up here.

Example delgano grape

When using the Images filter of Google, remember to consult the homesite where the image is found as this will give you more contextual information and details that will be useful for citing the source.

Here is a helpful, brief overview of finding, evaluating and using primary sources on the Web:

Using Primary Sources on the Web -- a concise guide to finding and evaluating primary sources online written in 2015 by a sub-committee of the Instructional and Research Services Committee of the Reference and User Services History Section in the American Library Association.

When evaluating sources, use criteria from the PARCA test. Information "About" the website should identify the source and biases or perspectives of the creators of the site. Sometimes it is helpful to conduct a lateral search by looking up the name of the publishing body in Google to see if others have evaluated it for bias and credibility.