SMCC Library: History: Primary Sources

What are primary sources?

Primary Sources provide firsthand testimony or direct evidence concerning a question or topic under investigation.

Some examples of primary sources and formats:

Archives and Manuscripts: digital media, diaries, journals, legal and financial documents	Books (Vantage Books) and Pamphlets
Data	Dissertations
Ephemera: marriage license, tickets, labels	Government Governments: official text of laws, treaties, and debates
Maps	Objects and Artifacts: jewelry, game boards, buildings and monuments
Oral Histories: interviews and audiovisual memoirs	Serials newspapers articles and journals (new research and findings)
Sound Recordings: spoken words, speeches, news broadcasts	Visual Materials: films, videos, photographs, paintings

Primary Sources: Identify Types and Formats
From Yale University.
Primary Sources: What Are They?
From Teachinghistory.org.
History Matters: Making Sense of Evidence
Helps students and teachers make effective use of primary sources. “Making Sense of Documents” provide strategies for analyzing online primary materials, with interactive exercises and a guide to traditional and online sources. “Scholars in Action” segments show how scholars puzzle out the meaning of different kinds of primary sources, allowing you to try to make sense of a document yourself then providing audio clips in which leading scholars interpret the document and discuss strategies for overall analysis.
Activity Tools (DocsTeach)
Learning activities designed to help students develop historical thinking skills.

Uploaded on May 21, 2008. Geisel Productions Web Series.