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Primary Sources: Definitions

Types of Sources

Primary sources refer to documents or other items that provide first-hand, eyewitness accounts of events. They are created by witnesses or recorders who experienced the events or conditions being documented. Often these sources are created at the time when the events or conditions are occurring, but primary sources can also include autobiographies, memoirs, and oral histories recorded later. Primary sources are characterized by their content, regardless of whether they are available in original format, in microfilm/microfiche, in digital format, or in published format.

Examples of primary sources:

  • Printed texts, including books, newspapers, diaries, pamphlets,  magazines, and journals
  • Creative works, such as novels, plays, poetry, etc. 
  • Manuscripts 
  • Maps
  • Paintings
  • Artifacts, including buildings, clothing, sculpture, coins
  • Audio and video recordings
  • Oral histories
  • Photographs
  • Dissertations
  • Government documents

Secondary sources are written later and usually comment on, interpret, or analyze historic events or original documents. Examples include scholarly books and articles.

Tertiary sources combine primary and secondary materials, often for educational purposes. Examples include textbooks, dictionaries, and encyclopedias. 

Video: Primary Sources

This video from Imagine Easy Solutions explains the differences between primary and secondary sources. 

Context

Be very mindful of context when evaluating sources; what is used as a primary source in one area of research can be seen as a secondary source in another, and vice versa. Consider this example: 

Item: "Before the Flood": Fisher Stevens' documentary on climate change
Researcher Primary or Secondary Source
Climate scientist Secondary 
Film student  Primary 

Furthermore, primary resources can look quite different between disciplines. For example:

Discipline Examples of Primary Sources Examples of Secondary Sources
Anthropology Fieldnotes, ethnographies, photographs, sets of data, art. Scholarly book/articles written about a specific culture or anthropological concept.
Film Studies Movies, documentaries, recorded performances of live plays. Biography of a famous director, scholarly books/articles written about a certain film genre. 
Literary Criticism Novels, plays, poems, letters. Scholarly books/articles written about themes in an author's work.
Political Science Treaties, legislature, court case transcripts, raw data.  Scholarly books/articles that offer commentary and analysis on a piece of legislature.