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Primary Sources

Definition of Primary Sources | Definition of Secondary Sources | Locating Primary Sources | Using Reprints | Using Periodical Indexes | Using Microforms | Using Primary Sources from the Web | Locating Manuscripts at Other Repositories | Citing Primary Sources

What are primary sources?

Primary sources are materials that provide direct evidence or firsthand testimony concerning the period or subject under investigation. While the definition of a primary source may vary depending upon the discipline or context, one thing that they all share in common is that they are the raw, uninterpreted materials documenting the events witnessed and recorded by the creators of the documents. Because of this, they provide scholars the opportunity to make their own original interpretations about the events documented without having to rely on what intermediary scholars have already written.

 Examples include:



What are secondary sources?

Secondary sources interpret or analyze an event or subject. Examples of secondary sources are biographies and journal articles written well after the event or time period under investigation.



Locating primary sources

Aladin, the library catalog shared by the seven library systems of the Washington Research Library Consortium, is one place to begin a search for primary sources.

The library uses Library of Congress subject headings to classify the books in the collection and there are a number of Library of Congress subheadings that point to primary sources. They are:

These terms can be used in a subject search or a keyword search. Examples of subject searches would be:

Examples of keyword searches would be:

Subject searches will generally retrieve more complete listings of sources than will keyword searches. However, since the precise, structured terminology used by the Library of Congress for the subject headings is not always the same as the commonly used terms for the same topic (i.e. "World War II" is classified as "World War - 1939-1945"), keyword searches also can be useful in identifying some sources.

Note or click on the LC subject headings listed in the middle of the Aladin record to look for further information on the topic through a subject search.

Search the catalog by author to find writings by a particular individual or to find publications from an organization or government agency. Examples would be:

In addition to the Aladin catalog, the Special Collections at the Gelman Library has recently implemented Genie, a search interface for its reDiscovery database that describes the archival and manuscript collections held in Special Collections at the collection level, the series level, and the file/item level.

Manuscript and archival collections are not cataloged in the same way as books are. Whereas a book will typically have a full catalog record for each and every title, manuscript and archival collections typically do not have individual catalog records or descriptions for each item in the collection. Instead, the collections are described in hierarchical levels (e.g. Collection/Record Group, Series, Files/Folders, Items). Understanding these levels and how they relate to one another will enable you to better interpret the information about the collections:
Collection level
Collections are groups of materials assembled by a person, organization, or repository. Typically, collection-level descriptions provide insight into the creators of the collection, the type of work that they performed, the context - social, political, and historical - in which they created the records. The collection level is good for getting a solid understanding of the nature of the overall scope and general nature of the collection.
Series level
Series are sub-units of collections. They are comprised of records that were created by the originators of the collection during the activities that brought the collection together. For instance, an organization might store its correspondence together in alphabetic order by correspondent. That correspondence would be a "series". Other frequently identified series include legal papers, financial records, property records, etc.
Folder level
In archival description, the folder level is typically the most precise - or "granular" - level of description. This is the level of the individual folder that is one of the constituents of a series. For instance, a folder of correspondence entitled "Smith, Jane" might be one of the folders of a correspondence series.

Note: the archives and manuscripts database used by GWU labels both folder-level and item-level descriptions as "Item" level descriptions.

For more definition of terms and concepts used in Special Collections, you may wish to view the Definitions of Terms Frequently Used in Special Collections website.

Because archival and manuscript collections can be described at all three levels, finding materials in collections of personal papers, organizational records, or other manuscript and archival collections often requires a slightly different research strategy than searching for a book.

One strategy is to start with the collection level record to determine if the collection as a whole appears to be relevant to the research topic in which you are interested. From the collection-level record, you can go to the finding aid, which is an index of all of the series, sub-series, and folders in the collection. Finding aids also provide very useful information providing researchers the cultural, political, and historical context in which the person or organization that created the collection was operating. Using that information and the listing of the folders in the collection, you can determine what, if any, series or folder is likely to contain the information that you are seeking.

For instance, if you are seeking information about the founding of the Whitman-Walker Clinic in Washington, D.C., you may not find a catalog record for a document conventiently entitled "Founding of the Clinic". However, by reading the historical note in the finding aid, you can determine that the clinic was founded in 1978 and then consult the listing of folders in the finding aid to determine if there might be more information available in one of the files. For instance, the finding aid indicates that there is an Annual Report from the clinic from 1978 in Box 1 Folder 4.

This approach of taking more general information and using it to dig deeper into the collection to find the material of interest to you is sometimes referred to as "drilling down" into the collection.

An alternative strategy is to use the Genie search engine to search our archives and manuscripts database to see if there are any records at the collection, series, or folder level that match your research terms. The Basic Genie Search searches all three levels simultaneously, while the Advanced Genie Search allows you to specify which level you want to search.



Using Reprinted Primary Source Materials

Many primary documents are reprinted in published sources such as Documents of American History, Annals of America, and Speeches of the American Presidents and these and others are available in the library. Worldcat, a database of items found in libraries throughout the world, allows one to search for books and other materials not owned by the library. Some of these materials may be requested through interlibrary loan, especially if they are reprints or microfilm of primary sources. Rare books and archival materials are generally not available through interlibrary loan. To access Worldcat, go to the Quick Guide: Worldcat page on the Gelman Library Website.




Using Periodical and Newspaper Indexes To Find Articles

Periodical and newspaper articles written during the period being studied are considered primary sources.  One can use various indexes to locate citations to articles  published in magazines and newspapers in the 19th and 20th centuries, for example. These indexes can be searched by subject or author.

Most of these indexes are available only in print format at the Gelman Library. They include:

The library has on microfilm many of the journals cited in the above indexes and they can be found by searching the journal title in the library catalog. A number of major newspapers are also available on microfilm including the London Times (1785-), the New York Times (1857-), and the Chicago Tribune (1849-).

There are several online databases that provide access to full-text articles from journals and newspapers for this time period. They include JSTOR: The Scholarly Journal Archive and the New York Times Historical database which has the full-text of articles from the paper for the period 1851-2001.




Using Microform Collections

Gelman Library's Microforms Room (3rd Floor) contains strong collections in:

For more information on any of these collections go the Periodicals Service Desk and they will assist you in locating and using these collections.

Government Documents

Materials produced by national, state, and local governments and national and international organizations may be considered primary resources. United States  Senate and House hearings, resolutions, laws, etc. are primary documents as are publications of organizations such as the United Nations and the European Union. Presidential papers, treaties, and Supreme Court decisions are other examples of primary resources. Mugar Library and the Pappas Law Library have many government documents in print and on microfilm and microfiche, some going back to the 19th century. Important collections include the Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States (1931-33, 1945-2001) and  Foreign Relations of the United States (1932-1976). The Public Papers are available online from 1992-2001 and the Foreign Relations documents are available online from 1945-1968.

There are a number of indexes that will facilitate access to government documents including GPO Access (index of documents published by the United States Government Printing Office, 1976-); Access UN (index of United Nations documents, 1946-); and Lexis Nexis Congressional (abstracts U.S. Congressional publications from 1970 to the present. Contains the full text of publications issued since 1995). The Government Information Research Guide provides more information on indexes and documents available at Gelman Library.




Using Primary Sources on the Web

Traditionally, most primary sources have been available in print and microform. With the increase in digitization of documents, many primary sources can now be found online.  It has always been important for researchers to examine their sources critically but with the increased availability of online sources, it is especially important for users to consider the authenticity of documents and evaluate the provider of those documents.  In general, websites produced by educational or governmental institutions are more reliable than personal websites. In evaluating a site, it is important to determine where the provider got the documents. The source of the original document should be cited whenever possible.

Documents may be presented in several ways. They can be scanned so that an actual image of the original is produced. Documents may also be transcribed, either by re-keying the content of the document or by using optical character recognition to convert the image of the document into text. Transcription and software errors can occur so it is important to see the original source of transcribed documents whenever possible to determine if the transcription is complete and accurate. Some sites provide both formats so that one can see a facsimile of the original document along with the text version.

Selected List of Websites Containing Primary Source Materials

Ad*Access
Provides over 7,000 images of advertisements from U.S. and Canadian newspapers and magazines for the period 1911-1955. Images are from collection at Duke University.

AMDOCS: Documents for the Study of American History
This site, maintained by the University of Kansas, has links to many important historical documents from 1400 to the present.

American and British History Resources
An award winning website maintained by Rutgers University Libraries. Links are organized by subject and period.

The American Civil War Homepage
Includes links to Civil War documents and photographs.

American Memory
This digital archive from the Library of Congress has over 100 thematic collections of historical documents, maps, moving images, sound recordings, and photographic images.

American Periodicals Series Online, 1740-1900
Consists of digitized reproductions of more than 1,100 eighteenth and nineteenth century newspapers and periodicals in the original microfilm reproduction series, American periodical series, I, II, and III. When completed in 2003, this database will have more than 7,000,000 pages of full text periodicals.

Avalon Project at Yale Law School: Documents in Law, History, and Diplomacy
Provides the text of many historical documents from around the world related to law, history, economics, politics, diplomacy, and government. Includes documents from the 9th century to the 21st century. In most cases, the source of the text is cited.

Declassified Documents Reference System: The United States
This is a digital archive of declassified U.S. government documents that date from the end of World War II through the 1970's. It contains searchable transcripts of the text of documents as well as digital facsimiles of documents.

Documenting the American South
This collection, sponsored by the library at the University of North Carolina, has texts, images, and audiofiles related to Southern history, literature, and culture from the Colonial period through the first decades of the 20th century.

Early American Newspapers (1690-1876)
Cover-to-cover reproductions of hundreds of historic newspapers, providing more than one million pages as fully text-searchable facsimile images.

EuroDocs: Primary Historical Documents from Western Europe
This site, maintained by a librarian at Brigham Young University, has links to transcribed, translated, and facsimile documents from Western European countries. Coverage is from the Medieval period to the present.

Gallica
The digital library of the Bibliotheque Nationale de France. Includes texts from the Middle Ages to the 20th-century.

Harpweek
Provides a searchable index to the content of Harper's weekly, beginning with 1857 issues, intended to provide scholarly access to historians of the 19th century. Provides access to the illustrations, cartoons, news, literature, editorials, and advertisements via controlled thesauri, as well as full-text search capability, and scanned images of each issue. The index will be updated periodically to reflect new information.

Historical Census Browser
Census data pertaining to the population and economy of U.S. states and counties from 1790 to 1960.

Historical Washington Post

Internet History Sourcebooks Project
A collection that provides links to historical texts for Ancient History, Medieval Studies, and Modern History. There are also some thematically based subsets that include African History, East Asian History, Indian History, Jewish History, and History of Science.

Lincoln/Net
Includes Abraham Lincoln's speeches and writings from his Illinois years (1830-1861) as well as other materials from Illinois' early years of statehood (1818-1829). This site is the product of the Abraham Lincoln Historical Digitization Project based at Northern Illinois University.

Making of America
This site, produced at the University of Michigan, is a digital library of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through Reconstruction. The collection contains approximately 8,500 books and 50,000 journal articles.

The Making of Modern Law: Legal Treatises 1800-1926
Includes over 21,000 works on British Commonwealth and American law. There are 14,900 titles from the nineteenth century and 7,100 titles from 1900-1926.

New York Public Library Digital Library Collection
Provides thousands of digital images from the NYPL collections including historical maps, illuminated manuscripts, and prints and photographs. It contains texts and images from the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

Official Documents of the United Nations (ODS)
This database has the full text of approximately 800,000 documents, most of them published since 1993. Thousands of documents are being added every year, including many published prior to 1993. Resolutions and Decisions from 1946-1993 are available in a separate Resolutions database, accessible through the advanced search screen.

Online Archive of California
This site brings together historical materials from a variety of California institutions, including museums, historical societies, and archives. Over 120,000 images; 50,000 pages of documents, letters, and oral histories; and 8,000 guides to collections are available.

Periodicals Archive Online
This index returns citations only. First select "Article Search" from the home page and on the next page, under "Search Options", uncheck everything except "Book Reviews". Enter an author or book title in the Keyword search box.

The Perseus Digital Library
This site, produced at Tufts University, provides digital images and transcribed text (in translation or original language) from ancient Greek and Latin sources. Also includes documents related to English Renaissance literature and to London.

UNESCO Archives Portal
Has links to primary sources from international organizations and countries throughout the world. Also links to exhibitions and to ongoing digitization projects.

United States National Archives & Records Administration
Provides digital images of many important documents in American history as well as the text transcript of these documents. Also has links to the presidential libraries where other digitized primary documents may be found.

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents
Contains text and PDF versions of statements, messages, and other Presidential materials issued by the White House. Available at this site from 1993 to the present and in PDF format only at HeinOnline (see Federal Register Library) from 1977-2003.

Women Working, 1800-1930
Provides access to digitized resources selected from Harvard's library and museum collections. These materials address the role of women in the US economy between 1800 and the Great Depression. Currently contains 3,500 books and pamphlets, 1,125 photographs, and 7,500 pages from manuscript collections.




Locating Manuscript Collections in Archives and Other Repositories

Numerous archives and libraries throughout the world hold important collections of primary documents in addition to the resources held in the Gelman Library's Special Collections. To find other collections, check the National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections and Repositories of Primary Resources. The National Union Catalog is a guide to manuscript holdings in the United States. Repositories of Primary Sources has links to over 5,000 archives and other repositories in the United States, Canada, Latin America, Europe, Asia and Africa.

In addition, the Gelman Library is in the process of subscribing to ArchiveGrid, which draws on the collection-level catalog records and archival finding aids from repositories throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe.




Citing Primary Resources

There are numerous style manuals in the library that provide information about citation format. They include the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (BF76.7 .82 1994 Gelman Stacks ), MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing (PN147 .A28 1985 Mt. Vernon Stacks), and the Chicago Manual of Style (Z253 .U69 Gelman Ready Ref ). Information about citing online sources is available at a number of websites including:


This page draws extensively on the similarly titled guide to Primary Sources produced by Boston University Libraries. For the Boston University Libraries original page, please visit: http://www.bu.edu/library/guides/primarysources.html