Primary Sources


What is a Primary Source?


"Primary sources are actual records that have survived from the past, such as letters, photographs, articles of clothing.
Secondary sources are accounts of the past created by people writing about events sometime after they happened.
" Library of Congress Website (source)

Definitions from:
See American Library Association's Information
See Wikipedia's Information
See Yale's Information

sourcesloc.gif
sourcesloc.gif

Library of Congress Lesson Plan for Teachers on What are Primary Sources?
The Library of Congress has a wealth of primary source documents

  • American Memory from the Library of Congress
  • World Digital Library from the Library of Congress
  • Thomas from the Library of Congress (A collection of information both current and historical about our American Government)

Repositories of Primary Source Documents Index
Primary Sources available on the Web

Many Universities have collections of Primary Source Documents. Here are just a few examples.


Historical Societies and State Libraries are two more resources for primary source documents: