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History

About Primary Sources

What are primary sources?

The building blocks of historical argument are primary sources.  What makes a source "primary" is if it is a direct testimony or artifact from the people your research is about.

Sometimes this can be obvious.  If you're writing about the Battle of Gettysburg, a diary of a soldier who fought in the battle would clearly be a primary source.  Usually a memoir, or a newspaper account, would be as well.

Something you may have learned is a secondary or tertiary source might be a primary source in the right context.  Usually a textbook would be a tertiary source--but if you're writing about the development of textbooks, then they become primary sources for your project.

On this page, you'll find links to some of the "classic" primary sources--newspapers, diaries, letters--that we have available at CFL.

Primary Source Databases

United States Sources

Global Sources