About: Primary Sources
What is a Primary Source?
A primary source is a first-hand account of an event, time period, or philosophical era.
A primary source may include:
- diaries, journals, speeches, letters, interviews, office memos and other papers if the author was present at the event being written about
- memoirs and autobiographies which are describing events that the author was present for
- government documents, such as census records
- reports and minutes of organizations that reflect events, conditions and ideas of the time
- books, journals and newspapers written at the time of the event in question
- photographs, audio tapes, and film that document an event
- research data documenting scientific data at the time
- artifacts of all kinds, which may include buildings (architecture), household items, cave drawings, clothing, paintings, pottery
Primary sources do not include:
- memoirs or autobiographies that reflect on an event that the author was not present for, unless it reflects the popular opinion of the time
- a critical analysis of a work of literature that was written much later than the actual work
- documentation of ideas or psychology of a time may be found in popular fiction, films, educational material etc produced during that time period
- a critical analysis of an historical event that was written much later
Primary Sources in McDermott Library Databases
- Everyday Life & Women in AmericaEveryday Life & Women in America includes primary source material from 1800-1920 related to the study of American social, cultural, and popular history. The collection features texts of rare books, periodicals, pamphlets, and broadsides from the 19th and early 20th centuries. It covers a variety of themes including popular culture, social history, family life, education, race, class, employment, and advice literature.
- Gale Primary SourcesGale Primary Resources is a research tool that allows researchers to cross-search multiple primary source databases using a single search box. It includes the following databases: Archives Unbound, Eighteenth Century Collections Online, The Making of the Modern World, Nineteenth Century Collections Online, and Sabin Americana 1500-1926 as well as the historical archives of several major periodicals (The Economist, Punch, The Times and more). Each database can also be searched individually.
- Gender: Identity and Social ChangeThis collection of primary sources is ideal for the study of women's suffrage, the feminist movement, the men’s movement, employment, education, the body, the family, and government and politics. Content spans from the nineteenth century to present and documents the changing representations and lived experiences of gender roles and relations.
- HathiTrust This link opens in a new windowHathiTrust is a large digital library bringing together materials from sources including Google Books, the Internet Archive, and other commercial digitization projects. This resource is being expanded daily and provides information on more than 10 million volumes with more than a third of these available for full text access and download (primarily books and journals published before 1923 and U.S. Government publications).
- JSTOR This link opens in a new windowJSTOR is a digital library of academic journals, books, and primary sources, with a broad variety of coverage in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences, spanning more than 50 disciplines. Collections on JSTOR include the complete archival records of thousands of journal titles.
- Latin American NewspapersLEAVING SOON - LAST DAY 10/31/2023
- Race Relations in AmericaDocumenting three pivotal decades in the fight for civil rights, this resource showcases the speeches, reports, surveys and analyses produced by Fisk University’s Race Relations Department (1943-1970), including Charles S. Johnson, Dr Martin Luther King, Jr., and Thurgood Marshall. Explore key themes such as the desegregation of schools, industries, and public transport; the migration of African Americans from the rural South to urban centers; the role of the church in the civil rights movement; race riots and other racial tensions; and more.
- Sabin Americana 1500-1926Sabin Americana, 1500-1926, is based on Joseph Sabin's landmark bibliography. This collection contains full-text works about the Americas, including Latin America and Canada, published throughout the world from 1500 to the early 1900s. Also included are books, pamphlets, serials, and other documents that provide original accounts of exploration, trade, colonialism, slavery and abolition, the western migration, Native Americans, military history, and more.
- World Scholar: Latin America & the CaribbeanWorld Scholar: Latin America & the Caribbean features primary source documents about Latin America and the Caribbean, academic journal articles, newspapers, maps and statistics. World Scholar covers topics such as politics, economics, religion, culture, international affairs, the environment, science, and technology. The collection includes manuscripts, signed letters, expedition records, reports, maps, diaries, descriptions of voyages, and more.
