Definition
What is a primary source?
Primary sources were either created during the time period being studied or were created at a later date by a participant in the events being studied (as in the case of memoirs). They reflect the individual viewpoint of a participant or observer. Primary sources enable the researcher to get as close as possible to what actually happened during an historical event or time period. 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.
A secondary source is a work that interprets or analyzes an historical event or phenomenon. Secondary sources are often based on primary sources.
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.
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.
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!
- Anti-Slavery Collection (Boston Public Library)The Anti-Slavery Collection contains about 40,000 pieces of correspondence, broadsides, newspapers, pamphlets, books, and realia spanning a 35-year period. The major holdings consist of the papers of William Lloyd Garrison, Maria Weston Chapman and Deborah Weston, Lydia Maria Child, Amos Augustus Phelps, and Samuel May Jr.; records of the American, Massachusetts, New England, and Female Anti-Slavery Societies; and the libraries of William Lloyd Garrison, Theodore Parker, and Wendell Phillips.
- Archives Unbound This link opens in a new windowTopically focused digital primary source collections. Includes African American studies collections, such as Fight for Racial Justice and the Civil Rights Congress, Black Nationalism and the Revolutionary Action Movement: Papers of Muhammad Ahmad; Federal Surveillance of African Americans (1920-1984); and others.
- Digital Howard (Howard University Archives)Digital Howard is an online repository curated by the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center and the Howard University Libraries.
- 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
- HistoryMakers This link opens in a new windowArchive of video oral histories from both well-known and unsung African Americans from diverse backgrounds. Search by name, area of influence, birth state, or by broad topic. All videos include full-text searchable transcripts.
- Library of Congress Digital CollectionsSearchable database of materials digitized and made publicly available by the Library of Congress. Includes documents, photographs, maps, videos, and more.
- Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600 to 2000 This link opens in a new windowIncludes primary documents, books, images, scholarly essays, book reviews, Web site reviews, and teaching tools, all documenting the multiplicity of women’s activism in public life. Also includes a searchable online edition of the highly respected research tool "Notable American Women: A Biographical Dictionary" (5 volumes, 1971–2004), fully integrated into the broader Women & Social Movements database.
ONLINE PERIODICAL SOURCES
To locate a particular newspaper, search for the title in Find a Journal. You will see options for both print and electronic access, if available.
- America's Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new windowSearchable database of hundreds of historical newspapers, including page images from microfilm. WFU access includes the Early American Newspapers Series 1 (1690-1876), African American Newspapers Series 1 (1827-1998), African American Newspapers Series 2 (1835-1956), and Caribbean Newspapers (1718-1876).
- Ebony Magazine Archive This link opens in a new windowProvides access to the entire Ebony Magazine archive from 1945-2014. Browse issues or search across the entire archive, including images and advertisements. Coverage: 1945-2014
- JET Magazine Archive This link opens in a new windowProvides access to the entire JET Magazine archive from 1951-2014. Browse issues or search across the entire archive, including images and advertisements. Coverage: 1951-2014
- Newspapers.com: North Carolina Collection This link opens in a new windowSearch the full text of historical newspapers from counties and cities across the state of North Carolina.
- ProQuest Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new windowProvides full-text searchable access to both U.S. and selected international historical newspapers, including: New York Times (1851-three years ago), Chicago Tribune (1849-1998), Wall Street Journal (1889-2011), Christian Science Monitor (1908-2009), Pittsburgh Courier (1911-2002), Washington Post (1877-2006), New York Amsterdam News (1922-2010), Times of India (1838-2010), Korea Times (1956-2016), Irish Times and Weekly Irish Times (1859-2021), the Chinese Historical Newspapers Collection (1832-1953), the South China Morning Post (1903-2001), and Leftist Newspapers and Periodicals (1845-2015). More recent issues may be available through other databases. Includes advertisements, illustrations, etc. as they were laid out on the original page. Coverage: Varies by publication.
- Readers' Guide Retrospective (1890-1982) This link opens in a new windowIndexes general interest magazines published between 1890 and 1982. Coverage: 1890-1982
Course Guide
Questions to Ask about a Primary Source
In order to use a primary source effectively, you have to know some things about it! These are a few questions to ask about any primary source you are considering using for your research.
- What is it?
- Who is the author/creator? What can you find out about them?
- When was it created? (Is it actually primary?)
- Why was it created?
- If you have access to the actual item, are there any notable physical features? (ex. size, paper quality, photographs, illustrations, binding, inscriptions, marginalia/notations)
- If it is digitized, who digitized it?
- If it's a published work, when was it published? Where? And by whom?
- What is the larger context of the source? What else was going on in the region/world at the time it was created? (This is where secondary sources can be really helpful!)
- Does this source mention other potential sources or keywords that you can use to further your research?
- What questions do you have after studying the source? What else do you need/want to know?