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HIST/WGST 370 Household Labor and American Women: A Term Project in Four Parts

Professor Georgina Hickey's class, Fall 2019

Primary Source - Defined

old-lettersPrimary Sources are materials produced by people or groups directly involved in the event or topic under consideration, either as participants or as witnesses.  These sources provide the evidence on which historians rely in order to describe and interpret the past. 

Some primary sources are written documents, such as letters; diaries; newspaper and magazine articles; speeches; autobiographies; treatises; census data; and marriage, birth, and death registers.  In addition, historians often examine primary sources that are not written, like works of art, films, recordings, items of clothing, household objects, tools, and archaeological remains.*

Abbott Handerson Thayer - "A Virgin"* Rampolla, Mary Lynn.  A Pocket Guide to Writing in History.  New York: Bedford/St. Martin's Press, 2012.  Print.

Is it Primary? Questions to consider:

Begin with an observation of the document in term of it as an object:

  • What type of document am I looking at?  A letter, a financial form, a newspaper clipping, etc.?  It it typed or handwritten?  Does that matter to your understanding of the document?
  • What are its dimensions?  What is its size?
  • Does the document have a color, or scent?
  • Who created this source, and why?
  • Who was the audience for this source?
  • What was this document's original purpose?
  • What was happening when this source was made?
  • Why is this source important?
  • If this source shows a specific point of view about a historical event, is it possible to find an alternate point of view? 
  • What did you find that surprised you about this source?
  • What can I learn from this source that is new to my research?
  • What are some things about the time period of this document that I already know that can help me make sense of this document?
  • Could this same document have been created today?
  • If you have more than one document, how are seemingly dissimilar documents related?
  • What are the assumptions in the documents?  Are they stated or unstated?
  • What is the chronology among the documents in the set?  What is the timeline of the historical moment evident in the documents?

(courtesy of University of Connecticut Libraries)

 

Primary Sources- Web and Library

PRIMARY WEBSITE SOURCES

Click on the link below for a Master list of primary sources for the Women's Household Labor Project.  You will find many quality websites and also some library sources in this list.

Primary Source List

A few more select library database primary sources:

University of Michigan - Dearborn Logo
  • 4901 Evergreen Road
    Dearborn, MI 48128, USA
  • Phone: 313-593-5000
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