HIST 156 & 157: Finding Primary Sources For History Research

Primary sources are documents, web pages, videos, etc., created by people or organizations directly involved in an issue or event. Primary sources are information before it has been analyzed by scholars, students, and others.

Some examples of primary sources:

• diaries and letters
• academic articles presenting original scientific research
• news reports from the time of the event
• literature (poems, novels, plays, etc.)
• fine art (photographs, paintings, sculpture, pottery, music, etc.)
• official records from a government, judicial court, or company
• oral histories
• speeches
• autobiographies

Websites:

Databases:

Determine keywords for your research topic. Avoid sentences or long phrases:

• "civil war" AND Gettysburg

Next, determine the type of historical primary sources you need:

• newspapers, magazines, photographs, artwork, etc.
• diaries, letters, interviews, autobiographies, etc.
• statistics, official records, legislation, law codes, etc.

Depending on the type of primary source you need, you may be able to search in specific databases for them, such as Newspapers.

You can also add keywords for your primary source materials to your search:

• diaries OR memoirs OR personal narratives

Your entire search might look like this:

• "civil war" AND Gettysburg AND (diaries OR memoirs OR personal narratives)

The University of California, Irvine's History Project has a worksheet here to aid in primary source analysis