What are Primary Sources in History
Primary sources are the pieces of evidence that historians analyze and interpret to support their historical arguments.
Depending on your topic, almost any kind of material can be used as a primary source as long as it was created during the time period that you are researching or was created by someone who participated, as in the case of oral histories or memoirs.
Letters, Diaries, Scientific Data, Interviews, Photographs, Maps, Videos, Manuscripts, Newspapers, Speeches, Oral Histories, Artifacts, Government Documents, Art, Ephemera, Broadsides, Memoirs, Songs, and More!
Finding Published Collections
Before digitization, accessing published document collections from libraries was a key way to use primary materials held in distant locations without needing to travel. It is often still the easiest way to find reproductions, transcriptions, and translations of very old texts or texts in a foreign language.
- Find It @ USC Libraries: Advanced SearchAdding the term sources in the Subject field is one way to identify published document collections.
Other Subject or Keyword terms to identify books with primary materials:
| anecdotes | interviews |
| archives | manuscripts |
| biography | notebooks |
| caricatures and cartoons | personal narratives |
| case studies | pictorial works |
| correspondence | public opinion |
| description and travel | songs and music |
| diaries | sources |
| documentary films | speeches |
| documentary photography | statistics |