Library: English and Literature: Primary Sources

Examples of Primary Sources

Primary sources are first-hand accounts of an event or time in history that has yet to be interpreted by another person.

Examples of primary sources include:

diaries, journals, letters, interviews, speeches, memos, manuscripts and other first-person accounts
memoirs and autobiographies
official records such as government publications, census data, court reports, police records
minutes, reports, correspondence of an organization or agency
newspaper and magazine articles written during the time of the event
photographs, paintings, film and television programs, audio recordings which document an event
research such as opinion polls which document attitudes and thought during the time of an event
artifacts such as objects, tools, clothing, etc. of the time period or eve+

Examples of Secondary Sources

Secondary sources are scholarly monographs or articles that are based on primary source data and analyze, critique, report, summarize, interpret, or restructure that data. They can also be based on a reading of other secondary sources or a combination of primary source data and secondary sources.

Examples of secondary sources include:

reference books such as encyclopedias, bibliographies, handbooks, etc.
reviews
textbooks
most scholarly books
most journal and magazine articles

Primary Sources

British History Online
A digital library of key printed primary and secondary sources for the history of Britain and Ireland, with a primary focus on the period between 1300 and 1800.
Internet Archive
A non-profit digital library offering free access to books, movies & music, as well as billions of archived web pages.
HathiTrust
Founded in 2008, HathiTrust is a not-for-profit collaborative of academic and research libraries preserving 17+ million digitized items
Early English Books Online (EEBO)
From the first book printed in English by William Caxton, through the age of Spenser and Shakespeare and the tumult of the English Civil War, Early English Books Online) contains over 125,000 titles listed in Pollard & Redgrave's Short-Title Catalogue (1475 - 1640), Wing's Short-Title Catalogue (1641-1700), and the Thomason Tracts (1640-1661).
Touchstone Database
The Touchstone Database provides a single point of access to descriptions of significant UK Shakespeare collections. The information offers a broad indication of the collections held - the database is not an itemised record of each library's printed book holdings.
ArchiveGrid
Includes descriptions of archival materials and collections held by archives, libraries, museums and historical societies in the United States. (Index)
Internet History Sourcebooks
The Internet History Sourcebooks Project is a collection of public domain and copy-permitted historical texts presented cleanly (without advertising or excessive layout) for educational use
Project Gutenberg
Over 40,000 free E-books from the first E-book website
Slaves and the Courts, 1740 to 1860
This collection consists of 105 library books and manuscripts, totaling approximately 8,700 pages drawn principally from the Law Library and the Rare Book and Special Collections Division of the Library of Congress, with a few from the General Collections
UT Ransom Center Digital Collections
These collections represent just a sample of the diverse holdings in literature, photography, film, art, and the performing arts at the Ransom Center

Library of congress "Why use primary sources?"
Primary sources provide a window into the past - unfiltered access to the record of artistic, social, scientific and political thought and achievement during the specific period under study, produced by people who lived during that period.

Bringing young people into close contact with these unique, often profoundly personal, documents and objects can give them a very real sense of what it was like to be alive during a long-past era

What is a Primary Source?

Primary & Secondary Worksheet
This worksheet lists some primary sources and some secondary sources. You can test your knowledge with the first sheet, then see how you did with the answer sheet.

Primary vs Secondary Sources