Tips for Locating Primary Sources
Choose historically appropriate keywords. For example, use "Great War" instead of "World War I" to locate documents discussing the war during and just after it occurred. You may also consider different terms that might have been used to describe the same event from opposing sides or perspectives. Searching for the names of particular people or places may also be effective.
Think about what types of primary sources might have been produced that would be relevant to your topic; think also about which persons or organizations might have produced materials. Some possible types of sources:
| Books | Photographs and images |
| Magazine and newspaper articles | Cartoons and advertisements |
| Diaries and journals | Movies, videos, and DVDs |
| Memoirs and autobiographies | Audio recordings |
| Interviews | Public opinion polls |
| Letters | Fiction |
| Speeches | Research data and statistics |
| Documents produced by organizations | Documents produced by government agencies, including congressional hearings and census records |
To locate potential primary sources in the library's online catalog, look for subject headings that contain terms such as diaries, letters, correspondence, autobiography, interviews, or personal narratives following the main heading.
Course Guide
What is a primary source?
In historical research, a primary source can be any source of information created at the time of a historical event or by a direct participant in or observer of an event.
Primary sources can include memoirs,diaries, correspondence, interviews, photographs, newspaper or magazine articles, film footage, news broadcasts, official documents, speeches, maps, artifacts, and works of fiction or drama.
What constitutes a primary source depends entirely on the subject of research. For example, John F. Kennedy's Profiles in Courage would be a secondary source in a study of John Quincy Adams or Sam Houston, but it could serve as a primary source if the topic of study were Kennedy himself.
Find Primary Sources
ONLINE PRIMARY SOURCE COLLECTIONS
The resources listed below are just a few of the online primary source resources available through ZSR Library and on the web. If you are unable to find information on your topic, schedule a personal research session with a librarian for more help!
- Research Guide: Primary Sources at ZSRBrowse primary source collections by subject.
- Early English Books Online - EEBO This link opens in a new windowFull text of books, pamphlets and broadsides published in England or in English between 1475 and 1700. Includes many of the items indexed in the English Short Title Catalogue. Corresponds to the Pollard and Redgrave, and Wing Short-Title Catalogues, as well as Thomason Tracts. Coverage: 1473-1700
- Empire Online This link opens in a new windowBrings together manuscript, printed and visual primary source materials for the study of 'Empire' and its theories, practices and consequences. The materials span across the last five centuries and are accompanied by a host of secondary learning resources including scholarly essays, maps and an interactive chronology. Coverage: 1400s-present
- Global Commodities This link opens in a new windowProvides manuscript, printed and visual primary source materials to explore the history of fifteen major commodities and to examine the ways that these have changed the world.
- HathiTrust Digital Library This link opens in a new windowFull-text seachable library of high-quality digitized materials such as books, articles, government information, and more from libraries around the world. Includes public domain and in-copyright content. Log in as a WFU user to download PDFs and access additional features. Coverage: Varies
- Making of the Modern World This link opens in a new windowProvides full-text, searchable access to primary source materials that track the development of the modern, western world through the lens of trade and wealth from the period 1450-1914. Coverage: 1450-1914
- The Other Voice in Early Modern EuropeOriginally founded to make available in English translation perhaps a dozen key texts by women writers who contributed to the development of humanism during the European Renaissance (ca. 1300-1800), this series now publishes, not just works by or about women that called for gender equality and equal education, but other important works, many quite popular in their day, from many different disciplines and genres, including religious history and devotional writing, economic equality and female autonomy essays, anatomy and medical treatises, philosophical and scientific works, and imaginative literature (including memoir, fiction, drama, and lyric and epic poetry)
Selected Primary Sources
A Corresponding Renaissance: Letters Written by Italian Women, 1375-1650 by Call Number: Main Stacks - Reynolds wing, 8th floor ; HQ1149.I8 C67 2016ISBN: 9780199342433Publication Date: 2015-05-27
Collected Letters of a Renaissance Feminist by Call Number: ONLINEISBN: 9780226721583Publication Date: 2007-11-01
The Society of Renaissance Florence: A Documentary Study by Call Number: Main Stacks - Reynolds wing, 8th floor ; HN488.F56 S65 1998ISBN: 0802080790Publication Date: 2001-11-15
Letters from the Queen of Navarre with an Ample Declaration by Call Number: Main Stacks - Wilson wing, 1st floor ; DC112.J4 A3 2016ISBN: 9780866985451Publication Date: 2016-02-26
Italian Renaissance Diplomacy: A Sourcebook by Call Number: Main Stacks - Wilson wing, 1st floor ; DG494 .I83 2017ISBN: 9780888445667Publication Date: 2017
Renaissance Humanism: An Anthology of Sources by Call Number: ONLINEISBN: 9781624661112Publication Date: 2014-03-14
