Finding Primary Sources

	Baby boy Photograph Black & White ca. 1939-1942 Whitesville, NY photographer unknown
EXAMPLES OF PRIMARY SOURCES
Published Documents
books (autobiographies, eyewitness accounts, memoirs)
magazines
newspapers
interviews
government documents
recipes & cookbooks
advertisements & notices
statistics (census data, land surveys, ordinances, blueprints)
laws
court decisions
treaties
constitutions
maps
pamphlets
posters
Unpublished Documents
letters, correspondence
journals
diaries
speeches
wills
family Bibles or histories
school records (attendance logs, report cards, etc.)
genealogical information
business records (correspondence, financial ledgers,customer information, board meeting minutes, & research and development, contracts)
Unpublished documents often come from community organizations, churches, service clubs, political parties, and labor unions in the form of membership lists, meeting minutes, speeches, financial and other records. Government at all levels creates a variety of unpublished records. These include police and court records, census data, tax and voter lists, departmental reports, and classified documents.
Oral Traditions/Histories
personal interviews
folktales or stories
family histories
Visual Documents & Artifacts
photographs
clothing
films
videotape
memorabilia

Sources:

The Learning Page: The Historians’ Sources: Types of Primary Sources. Library of Congress. 6 February 2003 <http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/lessons/psources/types.html>
Brainard, Sue Ann. Reference Workshop on Primary Sources. SUNY Geneseo. 21 January 2005.
<http://library.geneseo.edu/~brainard/refworkshopoverheads>

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© 2004, 2005 Kate Merrill