History 202: A Guide to Research: Finding Primary Sources

For History 200, here are some types of primary sources you might look for: 

• Journals/Diaries
• Works of literature (books or manuscripts)
• Interviews & oral histories
• Documentaries (interviews or original footage within them)
• News (TV, radio, etc)
• Autobiographies and memoirs
• Letters
• Art and sculpture
• Architecture and buildings
• Carved symbols or writing

Questions to Ask About Your Source

• Who made it and what do you know about them?
• When and why was it made? What purpose did it serve?
• Who was its audience? Was it widely or narrowly accessible?
• What does it tell or show you? What does it NOT tell you or show you?
• What historical questions does it answer? What insight does it give you about its time/place/people?
• What other historian/scholarly interpretations have you found about it or similar sources?

Print Resources (you can find these in the library)

Visit the Welcome Desk to take a look at the books on Reserve! You can check these books out and use them in the library for up to 2 hours. To find Reserves books and more, search the catalog below using keywords that relate to your topic. Try a very short phrase or a single word (ex. Haitian revolution) to capture your topic and add words like documents, sources, letters, papers, etc. to find books with primary sources.

Top Primary Source Databases

Use them to find an article or primary source that has to do with your topic.