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.
Tips for Locating Personal Narratives
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.
Consider various types of primary sources that might be relevant to your topic, including:
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Magazine and newspaper articles
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Diaries and journals
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Memoirs and autobiographies
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Audio recordings
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Interviews
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Letters
Use Primo, ZSR Library's discovery catalog, to search for subject headings that indicate an item might be a primary source, such as:
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diaries
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letters
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correspondence
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autobiography
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interviews
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personal narratives
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sources
ZSR Special Collections & Archives
ZSR's Special Collection and Archives may contain useful materials on your topic. There are a variety of ways to search these materials, depending on their format. The SCA website contains more information about hours and research help.
1. Search SCA materials (including books) in the library catalog. These include rare books from Britain and Ireland going back to the 18th century, such as travel narratives and papers from various figures in British history.
2. Search SCA finding aids to locate materials in collections that are not digitized. (Visit the Special Collections and Archives room in ZSR 625 for help using finding aids!)
Questions to ask of a primary source
- What is this item?
- Who is the author/creator?
- Who is the intended audience?
- When and where was it published or created?
- Why was it created?
- What is the historical context of this item (i.e., what else was going on in the region or the world when it was created)?
Primary Source Databases & Digital Archives
The resources listed below are just a few of the online primary sources 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!
- ProQuest Historical NewspapersContains seven newspapers back to their first issues: New York Times (1851-3 years ago), Chicago Tribune (1849-1985), Wall Street Journal (1889-1989), Christian Science Monitor (1908-2002), New York Amsterdam News (1922-1993), Pittsburgh Courier (1950-2002) and Washington Post (1877-1997). Includes advertisements, illustrations, etc. as they were laid out on the original page.
- Times Digital ArchiveFull text of The London Times 1788-1985
- Economist ArchiveFull searchable, complete facsimile edition of The Economist, the weekly paper covering politics, current affairs, and all aspects of business and trade worldwide. Contains more than 600,000 pages, with full-color images, topic and area supplements, and surveys. Coverage 1843-2012.
- British Library Newspapers, 1800-1900The British Library Newspapers collections feature London national newspapers, English regional papers, home country newspapers from Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, and titles in specialist areas such as Victorian radicalism and Chartism.
DIGITAL ARCHIVES
- HathiTrust Digital LibraryHathiTrust Digital Library is a digital preservation repository and highly functional access platform. It provides long-term preservation and access services for public domain and in-copyright content from a variety of sources, including Google, the Internet Archive, Microsoft, and in-house partner institution initiatives. Log in as a WFU user to get access to downloadable PDFs of public domain items.
- Empire OnlineIncludes over 70,000 images of original documents relating to Empire Studies, sourced from libraries and archives around the world. Contains manuscript and printed material, from not only British but also French, Dutch, Spanish, North American and other points of view. Supported by the Presidential Trust for Faculty Excellence.
Coverage: 1400s-present. - World Scholar: Latin America and the CaribbeanIncludes a wide variety of sources about Latin America and the Caribbean: reference articles and commentary; academic journals and news-feeds; primary-source documents; maps and statistics; audio and video; and more. Covers topics such as politics, economics, religion, culture, international affairs, the environment, science, and technology.
- Proquest CongressionalProvides indexing and full text of the Congressional Record (floor debates), committee hearings, US Serial Set, CRS Reports, legislative histories and more. Coverage: 1789-present.
- British Parliamentary PapersIndexes the House of Commons Sessional Papers, the House of Lords Sessional Papers and Hansards Debates.
- Slavery in America and the World: History, Culture, and LawThis HeinOnline collection brings together a multitude of essential legal materials on slavery in the United States and the English-speaking world. This includes every statute passed by every colony and state on slavery, every federal statute dealing with slavery, and all reported state and federal cases on slavery, including into the 20th century. The library has hundreds of pamphlets and books written about slavery—defending it, attacking it or simply analyzing it; every English-language legal commentary on slavery published before 1920, which includes many essays and articles in obscure, hard-to-find journals in the United States and elsewhere; more than a thousand pamphlets and books on slavery from the 19th century; word searchable access to all Congressional debates from the Continental Congress to 1880. Within this library is a section containing all modern law review articles on the subject.
Subject Guide
