Primary sources are records of what actually happened during a historical event or time period as they are first described, without any interpretation or commentary. Primary sources also include sets of data, such as census statistics, which have been tabulated, but not interpreted. The following are generally considered examples of primary sources.

• Diaries, journals, speeches, interviews, letters, memos, manuscripts and other papers in which individuals describe events in which they were participants or observers.
• Memoirs and autobiographies . These are generally less reliable since they are usually written long after events occurred and may be distorted by bias, dimming memory or the revised perspective that may come with hindsight. On the other hand, they are sometimes the only source for certain information.
• Records of organizations and agencies of government. The minutes, reports, correspondence, etc. of an organization or agency serve as an ongoing record of the activity and thinking of that organization or agency. Many kinds of records (births, deaths, marriages; permits and licenses issued; census data; etc.) document conditions in society.
• Published materials (books, magazine and journal articles, newspaper articles) written at the time about a particular event. While these are sometimes accounts by participants, in most cases they are written by journalists or other observers. The important thing is to distinguish between material written at the time of an event as a report, and material written much later, as historical analysis.
• Photographs, audio recordings and moving pictures or video recordings, documenting what happened.
• Artifacts of all kinds: physical objects, buildings, furniture, tools, appliances and household items, clothing, toys.
• Research reports in the sciences and social sciences. Especially for recent social history, the best evidence of broad developments in society is often in the form of social science surveys or research studies. This research is generally reported in book form, government reports or commonly in articles published in scholarly journals.
• If you are attempting to find evidence documenting the mentality or psychology of a time, or of a group (evidence of a world view, a set of attitudes, or the popular understanding of an event or condition), the most obvious source is public opinion polls taken at the time. These are generally very limited in availability and in what they reveal. It also is possible to make use of ideas and images conveyed in the mass media, and even in literature, film, popular fiction, self-help literature, textbooks, etc.

Primary Documents are available in several of the Library’s Online Databases, including: Milestone Documents in American History
Student Resources in Context
Discovering Collection
Global Issues in Context and
ProQuest Historical Newspapers (Star Tribune)

Primary Documents is defined as a source, written or produced at the time of the event, as evidence of how people were thinking or behaving at the time.

A secondary source interprets or analyzes a historical event or phenomenon. It is generally at least one step removed from the actual event. A recent article evaluating and analyzing the relationship between the feminist movement and the labor movement in turn-of-the-century England is an example of a secondary source. If you were to look at the bibliography of this article you would see that the author’s research was based on both primary sources such as labor union documents, speeches and personal letters as well as other secondary sources. Textbooks and encyclopedias also are examples of secondary sources.

The RHS Library’s resources incorporate both Primary and Secondary Resources. For example: the library catalog, Destiny, includes some books which are primary sources and other books which serve as secondary resources. The library’s Online Databases, such as: Academic Search Premier, Expanded Academic, Opposing Viewpoints, MasterFile Premier, Psychology Collection, ProQuest Newsstand, GVRL and Britannica Online Encyclopedia, provide a wealth of authoritative secondary resources.

Secondary sources offer an analysis or a restatement of primary sources. They often attempt to describe or explain primary sources. Some secondary sources not only analyze primary sources, but use them to argue a point of view or to persuade the reader to hold a certain opinion.

Examples of secondary sources include: dictionaries, encyclopedias, textbooks, books, magazine articles, etc. Many of the articles from these resources interpret or review primary research works.

Examples of primary and secondary sources:

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