First-hand documentations of events (e.g., autobiographies, original research, diaries, etc.) that present no “secondary†analysis or interpretation by historians or anyone other than those who produced the primary source.
Materials containing firsthand evidence of historical events, usually recorded by someone who participated in, witnessed, or lived through the event. Physical objects such as arrowheads, furniture, or documentary films can be primary sources. Your college transcript is a primary source that describes the history of your academic experience.
Statutes, regulations, by-laws, case law, and administrative rulings are primary sources of law. Although secondary sources may rationalize and explain the law more clearly than the primary sources, the primary sources establish the law. Therefore, in legal memoranda, opinion letters, legal argument, and facta, you must cite primary sources to support your conclusions and arguments.
Original sources that give you firsthand information through talking about, observing, or participating in an activity.
Primary sources are often called original sources or data. Primary sources include first-hand information in its original form. For example, primary sources may be original documents, reports, speeches, letters or statistics. Back
The raw, often factual data which underpins research. Firsthand testimony or direct evidence concerning a topic under investigation contained in books, serials, reports, etc.
Pieces of evidence, the origin of which is contemporary with the period, place, event, person or people being researched. Primary Sources can take the form of first hand accounts (diaries, letters, memoirs, speeches, newspaper reports, interviews, photographs etc.); official records (government documents, census data, company records etc.); creative works (poetry, prose, music, painting, film etc.); and artifacts (clothing, tools, buildings, toys, vehicles etc.).
the original research or writings on a subject. Includes technical reports, conference literature, patents, theses, and journals (the main medium for the dissemination of new knowledge) (Compare with: secondary sources).
materials written at the time an event happened. Diaries, letters, records of organizations and government agencies, and contemporary newspaper articles are generally considered primary sources.
can be original manuscripts, records or documents which are used by an author when writing a book or other literary compilation. Also known as "source material" or "original sources." An example of a primary source is Beloved by Toni Morrison, and literary criticism about the novel would be secondary sources.
Records such as Sanborn Company maps, tax assessments, diaries, oral histories, and other first-hand accounts and depictions of life in the past.
primary source is an original document containing firsthand information about a topic. Examples include manuscripts or handwritten text.
the use of actual historic sources Q - T
Primary sources are results of experiments or original research, literary works, autobiographies, original theories, and other materials.
The original sources of materials, such as interviews, eyewitness accounts, and original works of art
records of events described or recorded by someone who either participated in or witnessed the events or who got their information from others who did. Examples include newspaper accounts, letters, diaries, notebooks, and interviews.
These are original source materials, usually in document form such as parish registers, electoral registers or workhouse records.
First-hand accounts, original works, or original research, published in either paper or electronic formats. It may be a work of literature or art, contain scientific data, or detail an account of an event.