What Are Primary Sources?
Primary sources are first-hand accounts by participants of a particular event or historical time period. Secondary sources, on the other hand, are books and articles written by scholars investigating a research topic using primary sources.
If you were examining racism in the 1911 edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, the article in the encyclopedia on the "Negro" would be a primary source. However, an article in the American Historical Review analyzing racism in the Britannica would be a secondary source. (Richard Marius, A Short Guide to Writing About History, pp. 14-15.)
Some examples of primary sources include:
- Memoirs, speeches, writings, correspondence
- Papers of a political party, agency, or association
- Official documents such as congressional hearings and reports
- Contemporary magazine and newspaper articles
- Contemporary art works and music
- Contemporary artifacts, such as buildings and monuments
Critically Reading Primary Sources
It is important to critically read primary sources. Here are some questions to consider:
- Who is the author or interviewee? What is his/her relationship to the event? How long ago were the events described? What was the creator's place in society?
- What is the author writing/talking about? What is he/she not talking about?
- Why is the creator writing/talking about this? What is the purpose of preserving this information? Who is the intended audience?
- If an oral history interview, who is the interviewer? How does this person's relationship (familial or societal) to the interviewee impact what is said?
Make sure to understand the historical context of the primary source. Watch out for how your own 21st century values and views influence your interpretation of the source.
For more information on critically reading primary sources, see:
- Rael, Patrick. "How to Read a Primary Source," Reading, Writing, and Researching for History: A Guide for College Students. (Brunswick, ME: Bowdoin College, 2004)
- Shopes, Linda. "Making Sense of Oral History," History Matters: The U.S. History Survey Course on the Web. http://historymatters.gmu.edu/mse/oral/.
For information on conducting oral history interviews, see: