What do they mean by primary sources?
Primary sources are first-hand accounts of an event. They are created by those who have directly witnessed or experienced what they are describing. Some examples of primary sources include diaries, journals, memoirs, speeches, interviews, manuscripts, letters, or official records. Primary sources can also include original creative works, such as novels, plays, paintings, sculptures, or photographs.
Where can I find primary sources?
HIS206 Research Guide
For some suggested places to find sources for HIS206 outside of the library, check out the HIS206 Primary Source Research Guide or click on the image below:
Searching the library
For this assignment, you will need to think about the different events or people in history related to your chosen topic that you want to research and conduct separate searches for each of them. If you are not sure of a specific event, you can use dictionaries, encyclopedias, or even the internet to get ideas.
It is better to search for information about the specific events instead of entering a broad search like “American History and events since 1865”. For example, you will get better results using search terms like "civil rights movement," “Black Tuesday,“ “Wounded Knee Massacre,” “Susan B. Anthony” or any terms that relate to the events or people related to your topic in the search boxes.
JSTOR
Once you know what you want to research, We recommend that you search using JSTOR, which is a great database for history, scholarly articles, and primary source research. You can get to JSTOR and our other database that have primary source materials by taking the following steps:
1. Click on the More... button on the library homepage.
2. At the top of the page, you will see links for different types of resources. Click the link marked Primary Sources.
3. The link to the JSTOR database will be third on that list. Once you have the events you want to research figured out, you can conduct searches for them in the database.
In JSTOR, you will also want to:
Enter your search terms for the historical event, period, or person in the search boxes.
When searching for the primary source materials in the library there are several things to consider that should help you get what you need. The first tip is to look for an area that allows you to limit the date and put in the period of time of the event or movement that you want to discuss. This will be labeled Publication Date and will limit your results to only articles published at that time period.
In addition, it is important to keep in mind that it is a good idea to use the terminology of the time when conducting a search for primary sources. For example, World War I was referred to as "The Great War" during the time period of the war. It was not referred to as World War I until after World War II, and the term African American was not used until late in the 20th century. The terminology before that time was black or Negro. As mentioned above, you could also search using the names of the people relevant to that time period, or the name of an event or movement in American history related to your topic.
If you still have questions you can chat in real-time with a librarian here.