"Primary sources are the raw materials of history — original documents and objects that were created at the time under study."
The term "primary sources" covers a wide range of resource types that may be useful to researchers across different disciplines and research methods. The key element that distinguishes a "primary source" from others is its relationship to the events, periods, and time periods it represents or was created by. Unlike academic materials, which may have been written years or decades after a historical moment, scientific discovery, or artistic movements, and use analytical lenses to study their topics, primary sources are created contemporaneously to the events they represent.
Because they offer a first-hand account of what happened, primary documents offer insight into the past and how events influenced people of the time.
Types of primary sources include:
Many primary sources are held by archives, museums, and libraries, and they may make digitized versions of their collections available online. They may also provide descriptions of their collections, such as finding aids, which are documents that describe the history, content, and organization of an archival collection.
When you are looking for primary sources to assist in your research, consider what you know about your topic, and how this can help you find an institution that holds primary sources related to your research topic. For example, if you are looking for primary sources about an event that took place in a specific city, you may want to find the biggest newspapers in that city or state, or to check if that city has an archive, a local history center, or a local history collection in their public library.
Some primary sources are fully searchable using the same search techniques you use with library databases. For more information about searching library databases and similar online information resources, check out the Library 101 series of research guides. However, sometimes finding relevant primary sources requires browsing a collection or working directly with a librarian, archivist, or another institutional representative with expert knowledge of a collection. For more information about planning a visit to an archive, check here: Physical Archives.