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!
How to Access Primary Sources
Primary sources are shared or made available in three main ways:
- Original items, such as diaries, artifacts, etc., are held in archives, museums, libraries, and private collections.
- Digitized versions of original sources are provided online by institutions and commercial vendors.
- Published collections are available from libraries, in the form of documentary sourcebooks, anthologies, critical editions, and microfilmed document collections to name a few.
Searching Digitized Materials
Identify relevant online databases from the library or search in free online repositories.
- Latin American Newspapers, Series 1 & 2 (1805-1922) This link opens in a new windowSearch across this collection of newspapers in Spanish, English, Portuguese and French from across 20 countries in the Caribbean and Central and South America. Series 2 recently added!
- Sabin Americana (1500-1926) This link opens in a new windowBased on the landmark bibliography by Sabin, this collection contains works about the Americas published throughout the world from 1500 to the early 20th century.
- Slavery, Abolition & Social Justice This link opens in a new windowBrings together thousands of original manuscripts, pamphlets, books, paintings, maps, and images from 1490-2007 documenting key aspects of the history of slavery worldwide.
- Caribbean Literature This link opens in a new windowA searchable collection of poetry and fiction produced in the region during the 19th and 20th centuries.
- LACLIA free online repository of resources for Latin American, Caribbean, Latinx, and Iberian studies.
- Latin American Pamphlet Digital CollectionScarce and unique pamphlets, primarily from Chile, Cuba, Bolivia and Mexico, published during the 19th and early 20th centuries.
- ECDA: Early Caribbean Digital ArchiveHolds 57 early Caribbean texts, including novels, travel narratives, natural histories, colonial documentation, obeah narratives, and slave narratives.
- Digital Archive of Latin American and Caribbean EphemeraContains thousands of digitized pamphlets, brochures, flyers, posters, placards and other printed items created since around the last quarter of the 20th century by a wide variety of social activists, non-governmental organizations, government agencies, political parties, public policy think tanks, and other types of organizations.
- Digital Library of the CaribbeanProvide access to digitized versions of Caribbean cultural, historical and research materials currently held in archives, libraries, and private collections.
- Caribbean Histories RevealedFrom the National Archives in the United Kingdom, the history of the British Caribbean is explored in this exhibition through government documents, photographs and maps dating from the 17th century to the 1920s.
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.
- Latin American Readers SeriesFind links to the ebook versions of all the primary source readers in this collection from Duke University Press.
- 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 |
Using Original Materials
To work with original materials, you'll need to visit in person.
- Identify an institution that has a collection(s) related to your topic. Try an internet search or look for digitized collections to see who created them.
- Search their library catalog for items or collections. For more details, you may need to consult a finding aid. Finding aids are documents which inventory and describe what a collection includes and how it is organized.
Here is a sample finding aid for the Cuban Comic Books and Graphic Fiction Collection from University of Texas at Austin. - Consult with the archivist or curator at that institution. Be as clear and specific as possible about your research and what you're seeking.
Examples of major collections at U.S. universities.