Primary Sources: What are they?
Primary
As stated in the Library of Congress site, "Primary sources are the raw materials of history — original documents and objects which were created at the time under study."
For example: photographs of a protest march, a legal document such as The Constitution, the speech given by a famous person, a painting of a battle scene done by a witness, a letter from a king to another, an audio interview with a person who witnessed an important event, etc.
Secondary
Accounts or interpretations of events created by someone without firsthand experience, or analysis done after the fact, are "Secondary Sources."
For example: an analysis of why the French Revolution changed the social classes in Europe, a book in which the author explains what happened during the battle of Agincourt, an article with someone's opinion on the influence of the "I have a dream" speech by Martin Luther King, Jr, etc.
Recommended databases for World History
- World History: Ancient and Medieval Eras This link opens in a new windowCovers every area of the world from the dawn of prehistory through the great ancient empires to the beginning of the Renaissance. Thousands of authoritative primary and secondary sources, in-depth explorations of key topics, and profiles of city-states, countries, and regions of the ancient and medieval world.
- World History: The Modern Era This link opens in a new windowComprehensive overview of the emergence of the modern world from 1500 to the present. Covers Europe since the Renaissance, and concurrent developments in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Islamic world.
- History Reference Center (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window750+ history reference books, encyclopedias, and the full-text of 60 history magazines. This database contains 58,000 historical documents; 43,000 biographies, 12,000 photos and maps; and 87 hours film and video.
- Academic Search Complete (EBSCO) This link opens in a new windowGeneral database for many topics. You can search by type of publication in the advanced search, and also link your search to other databases, such as History Reference Center.
- ArtStor Images This link opens in a new windowAn image library for the Arts from international museums, libraries and artists' collections. Images for African-American, American History, Women's, Asian ,and Classical Art Studies. Anthropology, Architecture, Design, Medical History and other images of art, maps, drawings and more are included.
Databases tip
TIP!
In the EBSCO databases, use the "Advanced Search" menu when you do a search, and limit the "type of publication" to primary source documents, like this:
Websites: digital archives with primary sources
- British History OnlineBritish History Online is 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.
- DScriptoriumDScriptorium is devoted to collecting, storing and distributing digital images of Medieval manuscripts (D is for Digital).
- Bibliotheca AugustanaA collection of texts from Greek and Latin antiquity as well as medieval texts in Old and Middle English, medieval Italian, Old and Middle German, and other languages. There are chronological and alphabetical indexes to the texts.
- Avalon Project (Yale University)The Avalon Project will mount digital documents relevant to the fields of Law, History, Economics, Politics, Diplomacy and Government.
- Internet Medieval SourcebookThe 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.
- Internet Modern SourcebookThe 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.
- British Archivesind records from The National Archives and over 2,500 archives across the UK