Primary and secondary sources
What is the difference?
A primary source is a document, speech, or other type of evidence created during the time period under study. Primary sources offer an inside view of a particular event.
Technically, primary sources should be original. However, in order to physically preserve them and make them accessible to more scholars, many are reprocessed or reproduced.
Digital archives of special collections are becoming more available through the Internet. Many digital library collections contain reproducations of primary resources such as photographs, scanned images of letters, or the full text of books and journal articles.
A secondary source provides interpretation and analysis of historical events or phenomenon. Secondary sources are at least one step or more removed from the event and are generally written by someone other than the individual who experienced the event.
Often the easiest way to find primary sources is to look at the bibliographies in secondary sources.
Types of primary sources
- Original documents
- diaries, journals, speeches, interviews, letters, memos, manuscripts in which individuals describe events in which they were participants or observers
- Autobiographies and memoirs
- these may be less reliable than diaries or letters since they are usually written sometime after events occurred and may be distorted by bias, dimming memory or a revised perspective may come with hindsight. However, in some cases they may be the only source for information
- Records of organizations
- minutes, reports, and correspondence record the activity and thinking of the organization or agency
- News film footage
- Newspaper articles
- an account of an event by a reporter on the scene
- Official government records
- births, deaths, marriages
- Photographs, audio recordings, video recordings
- documenting what happened
- Research data
- field notes, the results of scientific experiments, and other scholarly activity of the time
- People
- an eyewitness who gives an account of an event
- Creative works
- art, drama, music, novels, and poetry
- Relics or artifacts
- physical objects, buildings, clothing, furniture, tools, toys, jewelry, and pottery
Examples of primary sources
- The Bible records Hebrew customs during biblical times
- Plato's Republic describes individuals in ancient Greece
- The Declaration of Independence is an artifact fundamental to U.S. History
- Diary of Anne Frank records experiences of Jews in World War II
- Film footage of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy
- Pottery or weavings from Native American Indians
Examples of secondary sources
- Histories - a book about the effects of World War I
- Literary criticism analyzing a poem, novel, etc.
- Magazine or newspaper articles about events or people
- Political commentary analyzing an election or politician
- A biography written in 1997 about Plato
- Textbooks
- Encyclopedias