What Is a Primary Source?

What is a primary source?

A primary source or resource is material, in any form, that describes or documents an historical event from the point of view of someone who was there. Primary resources should be examined critically to carefully determine the author's perspective. The following definitions are from institutions that archive primary sources:

Primary sources are the raw materials of history — original documents and objects which were created at the time under study. They are different from secondary sources, accounts or interpretations of events created by someone without firsthand experience.

- Library of Congress

Primary resources provide firsthand evidence of historical events. They are generally unpublished materials such as manuscripts, photographs, maps, artifacts, audio and video recordings, oral histories, postcards, and posters. In some instances, published materials can also be viewed as primary materials for the period in which they were written. In contrast, secondary materials, such as textbooks, synthesize and interpret primary materials. - UCLA Institute on Primary Sources

Primary sources are original records created at the time historical events occurred or well after events in the form of memoirs and oral histories. Primary sources may include letters, manuscripts, diaries, journals, newspapers, speeches, interviews, memoirs, documents produced by government agencies such as Congress or the Office of the President, photographs, audio recordings, moving pictures or video recordings, research data, and objects or artifacts such as works of art or ancient roads, buildings, tools, and weapons. These sources serve as the raw material to interpret the past, and when they are used along with previous interpretations by historians, they provide the resources necessary for historical research. -American Library Association

Primary sources provide first-hand testimony or direct evidence concerning a topic under investigation. They are created by witnesses or recorders who experienced the events or conditions being documented. Often these sources are created at the time when the events or conditions are occurring, but primary sources can also include autobiographies, memoirs, and oral histories recorded later. Primary sources are characterized by their content, regardless of whether they are available in original format, in microfilm/ microfiche, in digital format, or in published format.

- Yale University

. . . secondary sources are those resources that analyze an event and are produced by someone who was not present when the event occurred.

- UCLA Institute on Primary Sources

Secondary sources are less easily defined than primary sources. Generally, they are accounts written after the fact with the benefit of hindsight. They are interpretations and evaluations of primary sources. Secondary sources are not evidence, but rather commentary on and discussion of evidence. However, what some define as a secondary source, others define as a tertiary source. Context is everything. (Note: The definition of a secondary source may vary depending upon the discipline or context.)

Examples include: bibliographies (also considered tertiary); biographical works; commentaries, criticisms; dictionaries, encyclopedias (also considered tertiary); histories; journal articles (depending on the discipline can be primary); magazine and newspaper articles (this distinction varies by discipline); monographs, other than fiction and autobiography; textbooks (also considered tertiary); web site (also considered primary).

-University of Maryland

The function of these is to interpret primary sources, and so can be described as at least one step removed from the event or phenomenon under review. Secondary source materials, then, interpret, assign value to, conjecture upon, and draw conclusions about the events reported in primary sources. These are usually in the form of published works such as journal articles or books, but may include radio or television documentaries, or conference proceedings. -University of California, Santa Cruz

What is a tertiary source?

Tertiary sources consist of information which is a distillation and collection of primary and secondary sources. Examples include: almanacs; bibliographies (also considered secondary); chronologies; dictionaries and encyclopedias (also considered secondary); directories; fact books; guidebooks; indexes, abstracts, bibliographies used to locate primary and secondary sources; manuals; and textbooks (also be secondary).

-University of Maryland