WHAT ARE PRIMARY SOURCES?

Primary sources enable the researcher to get as close as possible to what actually happened during an historical event or time period.  A primary source reflects the individual viewpoint of a participant or observer.

• Diaries, journals, speeches, interviews, letters, memos, manuscripts and other papers in which individuals describe events in which they were participants or observers.
• Records of or information collected by government agencies.  Many kinds of records (births, deaths, marriages; permits and licences issued; census data; etc.) document conditions in the society. 
• Records of organizations.  The minutes, reports, correspondence, etc. of an organization or agency serve as an ongoing record of the activity and thinking of that organization or agency. 
• Published materials (books, magazine and journal articles, newspaper articles) written at the time about a particular event. While these are sometimes accounts by participants, in most cases they are written by journalists or other observers. The important thing is to distinguish between material written at the time of an event as a kind of report, and material written much later, as historical analysis.
• Photographs, audio recordings and moving pictures or video recordings, documenting what happened.
• Materials that document the attitudes and popular thought of a historical time period.   Again, the point is to use these sources, written or produced at the time, as evidence of how people were thinking. 

Back to History 123 - Haber Research Guide