Primary sources are created by eyewitnesses to or participants in an event who record the event or their reactions to it. These documents can be written, printed, painted or drawn, photographed, mapped, tape-recorded, filmed, video-taped or computer-generated. Primary sources are called primary because they originated with people who had primary, or first hand, knowledge of the event. Secondary sources are created second-hand, by people who were either not at the event or recorded information long after. Both primary and secondary sources may be reliable or unreliable (point of view, bias, poor eyesight/hearing, etc. (3).
|
|
Here are some basic kinds of primary sources:
____
1. letters, diaries, journals, wills, family bibles, report cards, etc.
____
2. business records such as correspondence, ledgers, minutes, speeches, invoices
____
3. poems, songs, hymns, chants, etc.
____
4. photographs, paintings, films, advertisements, and other artwork
|
5. tools, machines, urniture, clothing, and other artifacts from a
|
particular era
|
|
6. government records such as court proceedings, treaties and trade agreements, census data, tax and voter lists, classified documents, laws, birth and death certificates, hearings, etc.
|
|
7. newspapers and magazines of the period
|
|
8. oral history interviews and genealogical information
|
|
9. memorabilia such as buttons, banners, flyers, etc.
|
|
10. other objects such as gravestones
|
Some primary sources are published documents that were created for large audiences. Others may be unpublished documents or personal items that were never intended to be public. Some documents were created at the spur-of-the moment; others as a routine transactions; still others with great thought and deliberation. The actions of some individuals or groups are richly documented; others not in the mainstream might have little or no representation in the historical record.
************