Research Guides: Historical Criminology (Dr. Dan Horner's seminar CRM 406 winter 2021): 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 in the TMU Library catalogue

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 keyword searches:

Digital Collections Purchased or Leased by TMU that Include Primary Sources

Maclean's Magazine Digital Archive This link opens in a new window
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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 This link opens in a new window
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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.
North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries, and Oral Histories This link opens in a new window
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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 This link opens in a new window
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North American Women's Letters and Diaries includes the immediate experiences of 1,325 women and 150,000 pages of diaries and letters.
Canadiana This link opens in a new window
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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.
Canadiana Heritage Project This link opens in a new window
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The Héritage project is a 10-year initiative to digitize and make accessible online some of Canada’s most popular archival collections encompassing roughly 60 million pages of primary-source documents. Chronicling the country and its people from the 1600s to the mid-1900s, this collection represents a vast and unique resource for Canadian historians, students, and genealogists.

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:

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 criminal records toronto archives

ARCHIVES IN TORONTO

City of Toronto Archives The City of Toronto Archives has a government records section which has police records. 1847-1982 and includes such things as duty books, registers of criminals, and Chief Constable’s correspondence. They also have Bylaws, Council proceedings, City directories, Maps, and Photographs etcetera. Most material is not digitized. Try searching for photographs using as an example: keyword prohibition and check the online records only option

For material not yet in the archival collection, it may be necessary to file Freedom Of Information Requests to access material.

Archives of Ontario
Research Guide 233 Criminal Justice Records at the Archives of Ontario (updated Oct. 2020)

The Arquives: Canada's LGBTQ2+ Archives (a lot of material was digitized with the Archives of Sexuality and Gender (a Gale primary source database) including Body Politic, Xtra! and other community newspapers; TMU does not have access at this time)

Court Records

For court records, it's important to identify the specific court of interest by jurisdiction and type, as they have control over their own records and there is no central database. A guide to the different courts is available through the Dept of Justice and the specific names of courts and locations is available online at Ontario Court Locations and in this chart of historic court information. Different courts will have different procedures for the print records they hold on site, and different info available online through a lookup tool. For instance, it looks like the Supreme Court of Canada has some info available on what records were filed in relation to a case from 1988 to present. https://www.scc-csc.ca/case-dossier/info/search-recherche-eng.aspx

To know the relevant court and generally to learn about the case, case law research will be important: https://learn.library.torontomu.ca/law/cases Specifically, WestLaw Next and Lexis Advance Quicklaw are the go to resources for case law.

The court is always indicated on the case itself and can be determined by reading the identifying information at the top of the pdf as well as the citation e.g. Ontario Court of Appeal is indicated in this case.

Acknowledgement: I express thanks to Lisa Levesque (TMU Law Library) and Diane Granfield (Criminology Liaison Librarian) for input.