HST 300 Primary and Secondary Sources

Typically, historical research can be separated into two categories:  Primary and Secondary.  However, it is important to understand the differences between the two types of resources:  

A Primary Source is defined as:  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: 

• works of art
• films,
• recordings,
• items of clothing, household objects, tools,
• archaeological remains.

A Secondary Source is defined as:  A resource that discusses a prior event from an academic or research or layperson perspective.  The key here is that the resource is from some time after the event.  An example of this would be

• a book about the American Civil War or
• an article in a journal publication discussing the importance of the Battle of Gettysburg. 

A book will NOT typically be a primary source unless it is a compilation of letters or diary entries or documents.  

Primary vs. Secondary Source: Often determining whether something is primary or secondary may depend on the question that is being asked. 

• For instance, if a researcher is researching the causes of the American Civil War and reads a book on that topic published in 1900 that may be determined to be secondary.
• But if the question is then about opinions of the causes of the American Civil War that same book can then become primary.