Research Guides: HST 430 Food History: Primary Sources

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 of Omni, Advanced, Subject contains searches:

Digital Collections Purchased or Leased by TMU that Include Primary Sources

Some digital collections that will include recipes and information on cooking and cookery. You can search using keywords such as recipes OR cooking OR cookery. You may want to search for specific ingredients such as "cottage cheese", or specific types of dishes such as: soup AND recipes.

Maclean's Magazine Digital Archive
Maclean’s Magazine Digital Archive, offering content from 1905-2015, a Canadian news and general interest magazine, provides a unique perspective on both national and international affairs. Topics include investigative reporting, opinion and analysis on politics, economy and business, science and technology, society, arts and culture, education and work. It was initially known as then The Busy Man’s Magazine from 1896-1911, with a couple of 1905 issues published as The Business Magazine, and then changed to the current title, Maclean’s, in 1911.
Women's Magazine Archive
An archival research resource comprising the backfiles of leading women's interest consumer magazines. Coverage ranges from the late-19th century through to 2005 and these key primary sources permit the examination of the events, trends, and attitudes of this period. Among the research fields served by this material are gender studies, social history, economics/marketing, media, fashion, politics, and popular culture.
Defining Gender
This exciting collection of original source material from British and European archives will enrich the teaching and research experience of those studying history, literature, sociology, education and cultural studies from a gendered perspective. Manuscripts, printed works and illustrations combine to address the key issues from both masculine and feminine perspectives.
British And Irish Women's Letters And Diaries
British and Irish Women’s Letters and Diaries includes the immediate experiences of women, as revealed through pages of published letters and diaries from 1500 to 1900, including several thousand pages of previously unpublished materials. Drawn journal articles, pamphlets, newsletters, monographs, and conference proceedings, much of the material is in copyright. Represented are all age groups and life stages, all ethnicities, many geographical regions, the famous and the not so famous.
The collection also includes biographies and an extensive annotated bibliography of the sources in the database.
North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries, and Oral Histories
North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries and Oral Histories includes 2,162 authors and approximately 100,000 pages of information, so providing a unique and personal view of what it meant to immigrate to America and Canada between 1800 and 1950. Composed of contemporaneous letters and diaries, oral histories, interviews, and other personal narratives, the series provides a rich source for scholars in a wide range of disciplines.
North American Women's Letters and Diaries
North American Women's Letters and Diaries includes the immediate experiences of 1,325 women and 150,000 pages of diaries and letters.
Canadiana
Canadiana is a bilingual digital library of primary (source) documents of early Canadian printed publications including books, annuals and periodicals. Over 1,300 sources (including 350 titles from outside the U.S.) are indexed and abstracted. Of these, 600 are available in full text.

Formerly known as Early Canadiana Online.

Archival Newspapers

British Library Newspapers, Part I & II: 1800-1900
Sourced from the extensive holdings of the British Library, this resource delivers a wide range of irreplaceable local and regional voices to reflect the social, political, and cultural events of the nineteenth. These newspapers, emerging during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as a crucial channel of information in towns and major cities, provide researchers with a unique, first-hand perspective on history.
ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Calgary Herald
The Calgary Herald is the largest and oldest daily newspaper in Alberta. Its first publication was as a mining and ranch weekly in 1883 at the height of Western Expansion and the Nation Building period. The coverage gives insight into Canadian history in the early 20th century and important reporting of international, national, provincial, and local events. Other notable coverage includes the first Calgary Stampede in 1912 and the development of the petroleum industry in Alberta and throughout Canada.
Coverage: 1883 - 2010
ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Globe and Mail
This historical newspaper provides genealogists, researchers and scholars with online, easily-searchable first-hand accounts and unparalleled coverage of the politics, society and events of the time.
Coverage: 1844 - 2021
ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Montreal Gazette
The Montreal Gazette is Montreal’s only surviving English language newspaper, as well as the oldest daily still in print in all of Canada. Originally founded as The Gazette, the paper offers much insight into Canadian history in the late 19th Century as well as important coverage of international, national, provincial, and local events. Coverage includes past events of current historical landmarks such as the Notre-Dame Basilica of Montreal, Saint Joseph’s Oratory of Mount Royal, and the Old Port of Montreal. The paper gives insight into the commercial, social, and cultural life of the future city of Montreal.
Coverage: 1785 - 2010
ProQuest Historical Newspapers: New York Times
This historical newspaper provides genealogists, researchers and scholars with online, easily-searchable first-hand accounts and unparalleled coverage of the politics, society and events of the time.
Coverage: 1851 - 2021
Times Digital Archive, 1785-2019
Researchers can search through the complete digital edition of The Times (London), using keyword searching and hit-term highlighting to retrieve full facsimile images of either a specific article or a complete page. The entire newspaper is available, with all articles, advertisements and illustrations/photos divided into categories to aid searching.
ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Times of India, The
This historical newspaper provides genealogists, researchers and scholars with online, easily-searchable first-hand accounts and unparalleled coverage of the politics, society and events of the time.
Coverage: 1838 - 2011
ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Toronto Star
This historical newspaper provides genealogists, researchers and scholars with online, easily-searchable first-hand accounts and unparalleled coverage of the politics, society and events of the time.
Coverage: 1894 - 2022
ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Wall Street Journal
This historical newspaper provides genealogists, researchers and scholars with online, easily-searchable first-hand accounts and unparalleled coverage of the politics, society and events of the time.
Coverage: 1889 - 2013
ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Washington Post, The
This historical newspaper provides genealogists, researchers and scholars with online, easily-searchable first-hand accounts and unparalleled coverage of the politics, society and events of the time.
Coverage: 1877-2008

There are numerous digitization initiatives for local newspapers around the world. See for example:

United States: Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers

New Zealand: Papers Past

Australia: Trove: Digitised Newspapers and More

See also Carol Singer's guide at Bowling State Green University to Historical Worldwide Newspapers Online

Current and Recent Newspapers

US Newsstream
US Newsstream is part of Global Newsstream. It enables users to search the most recent premium U.S. news content, as well as archives which stretch back into the 1980s featuring newspapers, newswires, blogs, and news sites in active full-text format. For academic and public libraries, US Newsstream offers exclusive access to the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, and co-exclusive access (with Factiva) to The Wall Street Journal. US Newsstream also offers one of the largest collections of local and regional newspapers, and is cross-searchable on the ProQuest platform.
You have access to:
- Baltimore Sun
- Chicago Tribune
- Greenwich Time
- Hartford Courant
- Los Angeles Times
- Morning Call
- Newport News
- Newsday
- Orlando Sentinel
- ProQuest Newsstand
- Sun Sentinel
- The Advocate (Stamford)
Canadian Newsstream
This database offers access to the full text of several Canadian newspapers from Canada's leading publishers. This full text database includes the complete available electronic backfile for most newspapers, providing full access to the articles, columns, editorials and features published in each. Some backfiles date as far back as the late 1970s.

Search for individual newspapers and journals by title from our list of journal titles

Further Explorations into Primary Sources

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. In addition to the three sections of this guide: Finding Primary Sources, Evaluating Primary Sources, and, Using Primary Sources, this guide includes links to several additional websites that discuss primary sources for history research.

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. You may find items including manuscripts and rare print resources including printed ephemera such as branded recipe booklets.

Search specific institutions or try using a reliable search engine.

By Institution:

Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library Manuscripts (University of Toronto)
On the first page of results, one item, "Arithmetic exercise and cookery recipe book" is described in the catalogue record as being the work of Elizabeth Binge, 1828-1838, created in Dersingham & Lynn Regis, England.
On the second page of results, there is a "Cookbook of British recipes," "Cookery and medical receipt book," "Culinary and medicinal recipe book," and, "Culinary recipe book." There are additional medical and cooking recipes on following pages of results.

University of Toronto Scarborough
Harley J. Spiller collection [of menus]
Brazilian Menu collection
Robert Bon Lee collection

The New York Public Library digital collections A simple search for recipes returns a fabulous collection of recipes on cigarette cards as well as manuscript items, pamphlets and even a photograph.

Toronto Public Library Digital Collection A simple search for recipes returns printed ephemera and photographs.

By Internet

You may want to try to focus your search by including key words such as archives, manuscripts, or "primary sources"

For example, using Google, and the terms canadian cooking archives you will find some interesting entries with information on archived exhibitions held by Library and Archives Canada, and information about the University of Guelph's large cookbook collection.

One item is as follows:

Recipes | Wartime Canada

wartimecanada.ca

Wartime Canada is a window into the Canadian experience during the First and Second World Wars. Take a step back in time. Explore the Archive Category: Eating to find recipes, menus and more.

Restaurant and Food Menus available on the Internet Archive