Primary sources provide first hand testimony, eye witness accounts, or direct evidence of an event under investigation. Often they are created at the time of the event by those who experienced it, but primary sources also include autobiographies, memoirs, and oral histories created after the fact. Please keep in mind that the most useful primary sources are considered those that were created closest to the time period you are researching.*
Examples include (but are not limited to):
· Newspaper articles from time of event · Images
· Diaries · Objects/Artifacts
· Letters · Lab Reports
· Speeches · Data
· Oral Histories · Maps
· Government Documents
*This explanation was crafted from the definitions of primary sources provided by the libraries at Yale University, New York University, and the University of Illinois.
The majority of the collections included in the websites listed below document U.S. history and/or the American experience through primary source documents. Some, but not all, also include collections with an international focus.