Primary+Sources

Primary sources are **original records** **created at the time historical events occurred or well after**. Primary sources may include letters, manuscripts, diaries, journals, newspapers, oral histories, speeches, interviews, memoirs, documents produced by government agencies such as Congress or the Office of the President, photographs, audio recordings, moving pictures or video recordings, research data, and objects or artifacts such as works of art or ancient roads, buildings, tools, and weapons. These sources serve as the raw material to interpret the past, and when they are used along with previous interpretations by historians, they provide the resources necessary for historical research.

There is now greater access to primary source materials than ever before. Print materials continue to be the foundation for research, but in some cases documents, letters, maps, photographs of ancient artifacts and other primary material are available online in different formats. Examine your primary source critically. With the use of electronic resources from a wide variety of web sites, evaluation is more important than ever before.

Consider:
 * the authenticity of documents
 * what person or organization is the internet provider
 * whether the electronic version serves your needs.

PUBLICATIONS: Textbooks, magazine articles, histories, criticisms, commentaries, encyclopedias Examples of secondary sources include:
 * A secondary source interprets and analyzes primary sources**. These sources are **one or more steps removed from the event**. Secondary sources may have pictures, quotes or graphics of primary sources in them. Some types of secondary sources include:
 * journal/magazine articles which interpret or review previous findings
 * history textbooks
 * books about the effects of WWI
 * commentaries
 * biographies

This site has excellent information, much of which was used for the information above: [|RUSA Using Primary Sources on the Web]

This site is from Princeton University and at the bottom has links to primary sources on the web. Princeton University: What is a Primary Source?

http://memory.loc.gov/learn/lessons/primary.html#images