Primary Sources: Home

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Primary sources are found by combining your topic with the term - Sources. Examples:

• History - Sources
• World War, 1939-1945 - Sources
• Shakespeare, William, -- 1564-1616 -- Sources
• African American women -- History -- 19th century -- Sources

You may also combine your topic with these specific terms:

• Biography (but only use the autobiographical parts)
• Catalogs (used to find works of Art)
• Correspondence
• Diaries
• Exhibitions (used to find works of Art)
• Interviews
• Letters - See Correspondence
• Manuscripts,
• Personal narratives
• Photography
• Pictorial works
• Polls
• Portraits
• Public opinion
• Speeches, addresses, etc.

Go to OneSearch and search on your topic.

Under Source Types on the left side of the page, limit the results to Primary Source Documents.

Primary sources reflect the individual viewpoint of a participant or observer. It constitutes first hand evidence "from" the time... as opposed to "about" the time.

Examples:

• Diaries, journals, speeches, interviews, letters, memos, manuscripts, memoirs, autobiographies, government documents, and organizations records.
• Books and articles from magazines, journals, and newspapers written at the time about a particular event.
• Photographs, paintings, portraits, and audio and video recordings documenting what happened.
• Surveys and polls and interviews.

Here is a wonderful guide on Primary Sources by Jill Anderson at Georgia State University!

(image from http://www.wordle.net/)

An interdisciplinary eBook collection containing a large number of primary source titles including:

Defining Documents in American History

• Exploration & Colonial America (1492-1755)
• The American Revolution (1754-1805)
• The American West (1836–1900)
• Civil War (1860–1865)
• Reconstruction Era (1865–1877)
• The Emergence of Modern America (1874–1917)
• The 1900s (1900-1909)
• The 1910s (1910-1919)
• The 1920s (1920–1929)
• The 1930s (1930–1939)
• Postwar 1940s (1945–1950)
• The 1950s (1950-1959)
• The 1960s (1960-1969)
• World War I (1914–1919)
• World War II (1939–1946)
• Civil Rights (1954–2015)

Defining Documents in World History

• The Ancient World (2700 B.C.E.–c.500 C.E.)
• Middle Ages (476–1500)
• Renaissance & Early Modern Era (1308-1600)
• The 17th Century (1601-1700)

Great Events from History

• The Ancient World, Prehistory-476 c.e.
• The Middle Ages, 477-1453
• Renaissance & Early Modern Era, 1454-1600
• The Seventeenth Century 1601-1700
• The Eighteenth Century
• The Nineteenth Century

Milestone Documents in

• African American History
• American History
• World History
• World Religions