Primary Sources

The term "primary source" is often used to refer to a document, recording or other source of information that was created at roughly the time being studied, by an authoritative source, usually one with direct personal knowledge of the events being described. A primary source could be a first-handed source from the past including diaries or artifacts. Primary sources have been described as those sources closest to the origin of the information or idea under study. They may contain original research or new information not previously published elsewhere. They have been distinguished from secondary sources, which often cite, comment on, or build upon primary sources. Primary sources can be an important part of your research. The following links are designed to help you better understand and use primary source as well as easily locate primary sources on many topics.

Using Primary Resources

• Using Primary Sources on  the Web
  http://www.lib.washington.edu/subject/History/RUSA/
• Library Research Using Primary Sources http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/PrimarySources.html
• Primary Source Materials & Document Based Questions http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/fil/pages/listdocumentpa.html
• Using Primary Sources in the Classroom
  http://memory.loc.gov/learn/lessons/primary.html
• Repositories of Primary Sources
  http://www.uidaho.edu/special-collections/Other.Repositories.html
• TeachersFirst.com - Original Documents
  http://www.teachersfirst.com/ushistory/

Links to Primary Sources 

• Ad*Access - John W. Harlman Center for Sales, Marketing & Advertising History
  http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/adaccess/index.html
• American Colonist's Library
  http://home.wi.rr.com/rickgardiner/primarysources.htm
• American Journeys: Eyewitness Accounts of Early American Exploration and Settlement
  http://www.americanjourneys.org/
• American Memory Historical Collection
  http://memory.loc.gov/
• Apollo: A Retrospective Analysis (Key Apollo Source Documents)
  http://history.nasa.gov/Apollomon/docs.htm
• Archive of Primary Sources
  http://www.dohistory.org
• Archiving Early America
  http://www.earlyamerica.com/
• Authentic History Center
  http://authentichistory.com/
• Avalon Project at Yale Law School: Documents in Law, History and Diplomacy
  http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/avalon.htm
• Child Labor in America 1908-1912
  http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/childlabor/index.html
• Civil War Documents
  http://www.civilwar.com/linkdocu.htm
• Civil War Women
  http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/women/cwdocs.html
• Documenting the American South
  http://docsouth.unc.edu/index.html
• Eighteenth-Century Resources
  www.andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/18th
• Electronic Text Center
  http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/
• Eyewitness Accounts of Historical Accounts
  http://www.historynet.com/
• Fireside Chats of Franklin D. Roosevelt
  http://www.mhrcc.org/fdr/fdr.html
• Hanover Historical Texts Project
  http://history.hanover.edu/project.html
• Illinois Justice: The Scandal of 1969 and the Rise of John Paul Stevens
  http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/manaster/
• Images of African Americans from the 19th Century
  http://digital.nypl.org/schomburg/images_aa19/
• Indian History Sourcebook
  http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/india/indiasbook.html
• Internet Medieval Sourcebook Full Text Sources
  http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook2.html#byz2
• Letters from an Iowa Soldier in the Civil War
  http://www.civilwarletters.com/home.html
• Library of Fur Trade Historical Source Documents (Diaries, Narratives, and Letters of the Mountain Men)
  http://www.xmission.com/~drudy/mtman/mmarch.html
• Making of America
  www.hti.umich.edu/m/moagrp
• Medieval English Urban Life (Florilegium Urbanum)
  http://www.trytel.com/~tristan/towns/florilegium/flor00.html
• Medieval Sourcebook: The Crusades
  http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook1k.html
• New Deal Network
  http://newdeal.feri.org/index.htm
• O'Keefe Library Best Information on the Net
  http://library.sau.edu/bestinfo/Majors/History/hisamedoc.htm
• Online Books Page
  http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/
• Photographs of the Great Depression
  http://history1900s.about.com/library/photos/blyindexdepression.htm?once...
• Primary Sources and Transcripts from the Magna Carter to Martin Luther King, Jr.
  http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/D/
• Primary Sources on Voyages of Discovery
  http://www.win.tue.nl/~engels/discovery/primary.html
• Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library at Duke University
  http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/
• Salem Witchcraft Papers
  http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/salem/witchcraft/texts/
• Schoenberg Center for Electronic Text and Image (SCETI)
  http://dewey.library.upenn.edu/sceti/flash.cfm?CFID+414114&CFTOKEN+31907409
• Scroll Fragments from the Qumram Library (Dead Sea Scrolls)
  http://www.ibiblio.org/expo/deadsea.scrolls.exhibit/Library/library.html
• Spy Letters of the American Revolution
  http://www.si.umich.edu/SPIES/index-gallery.html
• Turning the Pages - British Library's system for turning the pages of great books including Leonardo's Notebooks, Lindisfarne Gospels, and more NEW!
  http://www.bl.uk/collections/treasures/digitisation2.html
• World War I Document Archive
  http://www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi/
• World War II Resources
  http://www.ibiblio.org/pha/