HIST 1301 & 1302 - United States History I & II - VanSandt: Independent Research Project: Primary Sources Defined

WHAT IS A PRIMARY SOURCE?

A source that comes from a person or organization who created, participated in, or witnessed something.

Examples:

• Art
• Artifacts
• Autobiographies 
• Census data
• Company Annual Report 
• Diaries   
• Interviews  
• Laws
• Memoir
• Movie
• Novel
• Oral histories 
• Photos
• Poetry
• Results of an original experiment   
• Speeches    
• Video 

Some Sources are Difficult to Label as "Primary:"

• A newspaper article from the time an event happened, for example, an article during the Civil War, would be considered primary, but a newspaper article written today about the Civil War would not.
• A journal article with the results of an experiment done by the author would be primary. A journal article summarizing various experiments on the same subject would not be primary.

Why Use Primary Sources?

It is important to get as close as you can to the original event or source so you can observe and analyze without others' views clouding yours. We have all attended events and read about it later and said, "That's not how it was." It's the same with using primary sources. They help you form your own opinions and explanations. This will also greatly help you when you read secondary sources, both because you will have a clearer idea of what is being analyzed but also you can see more clearly where you agree or disagree.

Excerpt of letter from Helen Keller to Alexander Graham Bell, 1907