Primary Sources

What are primary sources?

Primary sources are materials that provide direct evidence or firsthand testimony concerning the period or subject under investigation. The definition of a primary source may vary depending upon the discipline or context. Examples include:

Diaries, letters, speeches, interviews, manuscripts
Memoirs and autobiographies
Records of organizations and government agencies
Journal and newspaper articles written at the time
Photographs, audio recordings, video recordings
Public opinion polls conducted at the time
Research reports or articles reflecting the results of scientific experiments or studies
Works of art, architecture, literature, and music such as paintings, sculptures, musical scores, buildings, novels, poems, etc.
Artifacts such as plant specimens, fossils, furniture, tools, clothing, etc. of the time under study

What are secondary sources?

Secondary sources interpret or analyze an event or subject. Examples of secondary sources are biographies and journal articles written well after the event or time period under investigation.

Finding primary sources.

The library catalog is a good place to begin a search for primary sources. The library uses Library of Congress subject headings to classify the books in the collection and there are a number of Library of Congress subheadings that point to primary sources. They are:

correspondence
sources
diaries
personal narratives
interviews
speeches
documents
archives
early works to 1800

These terms can be used in a subject search or a keyword search. Examples of subject searches would be:

World War- 1914-1918 - Personal Narratives
Composers- Germany- Correspondence
Soviet Union- History- Sources

Examples of keyword searches would be:

Civil War and diaries
American Revolution and sources
Pablo Picasso and interviews

Subject searches will generally retrieve a more complete listing of sources than will keyword searches. Because Library of Congress subject headings are not always the first terms that come to mind (i.e. World War II is classified as World War- 1939-1945), keyword searches can be useful in identifying some sources. Note or click on the LC subject headings listed at the bottom of the record to look for further information on the topic through a subject search.

Search the catalog by author to find writings by a particular individual or to find publications from an organization or government agency. Examples would be:

Roosevelt, Franklin D.
United States. Environmental Protection Agency
World Bank

Many primary documents are reprinted in published sources such as Documents of American History, Annals of America, and Speeches of the American Presidents and these and others are available in the library. Worldcat, a database of items found in libraries throughout the world, allows one to search for books and other materials not owned by the library. Some of these materials may be requested through interlibrary loan, especially if they are reprints or microfilm of primary sources. Rare books and archival materials are generally not available through interlibrary loan.

Using Periodical and Newspaper Indexes To Find Articles

Periodical and newspaper articles written during the period being studied are considered primary sources. One can use various indexes to locate citations to articles published in magazines and newspapers in the 19th and 20th centuries, for example. These indexes can be searched by subject or author.

Most of these indexes are available only in print format at Boston University and they can be found in the first floor reference area of Mugar Library. They include:

Nineteenth Century Reader's Guide (1890-1899) XAI3 F44
Poole's Index to Periodical Literature (1802-1906) XAI3 E82
International Index to Periodicals (1907-1964) XAI3 F16
Reader's Guide to Periodicals (1900+) XAI3 F05.

The library has on microfilm many of the journals cited in the above indexes and they can be found by searching the journal title in the library catalog. A number of major newspapers are also available on microfilm including the London Times (1785-), the New York Times (1857-), and the Chicago Tribune (1849-). These and other newspapers are shelved by title in the Microforms Room in the basement of Mugar Library. Indexes to these newpapers are located in the Current Periodicals Room. More information about newspapers available at Boston University can be found in the Finding News Media Research Guide.

There are several online databases that provide access to full-text articles from journals and newspapers for this time period. They are JSTOR: The Scholarly Journal Archive, Harper's Weekly (1857-1877), and the New York Times Historical database which has the full-text of articles from the paper for the period 1851-2004.

Microform Collections

The library has important microform collections of American and English publications from the 15th-19th centuries. Early English Books 1475-1640 (microfilm AC4 F60) and English Books 1641-1700 (microfilm AC4 F61) contain the text of books published in England, Scotland, and Ireland and books in English published abroad during the time periods indicated. These sets are also available online as Early English Books Online.

The Eighteenth Century (microfilm AC4 F62) is a collection of approximately 200,000 items printed in Great Britain and its colonies or printed in English elsewhere in the world from 1701-1800. It is based on the British Library's Eighteenth Century Short Title Catalogue. An index, The Eighteenth Century: Guide to the Microfilm Collection, can be found in the Current Periodicals Room (Micro Ref X AC4 F62 Index).
This set is available online as Eighteenth Century Collections Online.

Early American Imprints, 1639-1800, a microfiche collection located in the Current Periodicals Room, contains the full- text of all known existing books, pamphlets, and broadsides printed in the United States or British American colonies from 1639-1800. American Bibliography. A Chronological Dictionary by Charles Evans indexes this collection. (XZ1215 F03R).

American Periodical Series: Eighteenth Century (microfilm Z6951 F42) and American Periodical Series: 1800-1850 (microfilm Z6951 F46) include virtually all significant periodicals published in colonial America and in the United States through 1850. American Periodical Series: 1850-1900 (microfilm Z6951 F641) contains only a selection of materials published during this time period. All three collections are indexed in American periodicals, 1741-1900 by Hoornstra and Heath (XZ6951 H65).

An extensive collection of early American newspapers and newspapers from the Civil War and Reconstruction eras can also be found on microfilm in the library. The early American newspapers can be found by searching the series title, Early American Newspapers, in the library catalog or they can be found by searching the individual title of the newspaper. The Civil War and Reconstruction newspapers are listed individually in the catalog under title. The Finding News Media Research Guide provides a complete listing of these titles. For more information on the microform collections in the library, see the Microset Guide.

Government Documents

Materials produced by national, state, and local governments and national and international organizations may be considered primary resources. United States Senate and House hearings, resolutions, laws, etc. are primary documents as are publications of organizations such as the United Nations and the European Union. Presidential papers, treaties, and Supreme Court decisions are other examples of primary resources. Mugar Library and the Pappas Law Library have many government documents in print and on microfilm and microfiche, some going back to the 19th century. Important collections include the Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States (1931-33, 1945-2001) and Foreign Relations of the United States (1932-1976). The Public Papers are available online from 1991-2004 and the Foreign Relations documents are available online from 1945-1968.

There are several indexes that will facilitate access to government documents including Access UN (index of United Nations documents, 1945-); and Lexis Nexis Congressional (abstracts U.S. Congressional publications from 1970 to the present. Contains the full text of publications issued since 1995). The Government Documents Research Guide provides more information on indexes and documents available at Boston University.

Primary Sources on the Web

Traditionally, most primary sources have been available in print and microform. With the increase in digitization of documents, many primary sources can now be found online. It has always been important for researchers to examine their sources critically but with the increased availability of online sources, it is especially important for users to consider the authenticity of documents and evaluate the provider of those documents. In general, websites produced by educational or governmental institutions are more reliable than personal websites. In evaluating a site, it is important to determine where the provider got the documents. The source of the original document should be cited whenever possible.

Documents may be presented in several ways. They can be scanned so that an actual image of the original is produced. Documents may also be transcribed, either by re-keying the content of the document or by using optical character recognition to convert the image of the document into text. Transcription and software errors can occur so it is important to see the original source of transcribed documents whenever possible to determine if the transcription is complete and accurate. Some sites provide both formats so that one can see a facsimile of the original document along with the text version.

Selected List of Websites Containing Primary Source Materials

Ad*Access
Provides over 7,000 images of advertisements from U.S. and Canadian newspapers and magazines for the period 1911-1955. Images are from collection at Duke University.

AMDOCS: Documents for the Study of American History
This site, maintained by the University of Kansas, has links to many important historical documents from 1400 to the present.

American and British History Resources
An award winning website maintained by Rutgers University Libraries. Links are organized by subject and period.

The American Civil War Homepage
Includes links to Civil War documents and photographs.

American Memory
This digital archive from the Library of Congress has over 100 thematic collections of historical documents, maps, moving images, sound recordings, and photographic images.

Avalon Project at Yale Law School: Documents in Law, History, and Diplomacy
Provides the text of many historical documents from around the world related to law, history, economics, politics, diplomacy, and government. Includes documents from the 9th century to the 21st century. In most cases, the source of the text is cited.

Declassified Documents Reference System: The United States
This is a digital archive of declassified U.S. government documents that date from the end of World War II through the 1970's. It contains searchable transcripts of the text of documents as well as digital facsimiles of documents.

Documenting the American South
This collection, sponsored by the library at the University of North Carolina, has texts, images, and audiofiles related to Southern history, literature, and culture from the Colonial period through the first decades of the 20th century.

EuroDocs: Primary Historical Documents from Western Europe
This site, maintained by a librarian at Brigham Young University, has links to transcribed, translated, and facsimile documents from Western European countries. Coverage is from the Medieval period to the present.

Gallica
The digital library of the Bibliotheque Nationale de France. Includes texts from the Middle Ages to the 20th-century.

Historical Census Browser
Census data pertaining to the population and economy of U.S. states and counties from 1790 to 1960.

Internet History Sourcebooks Project
A collection that provides links to historical texts for Ancient History, Medieval Studies, and Modern History. There are also some thematically based subsets that include African History, East Asian History, Indian History, Jewish History, and History of Science.

Lincoln/Net
Includes Abraham Lincoln's speeches and writings from his Illinois years (1830-1861) as well as other materials from Illinois' early years of statehood (1818-1829). This site is the product of the Abraham Lincoln Historical Digitization Project based at Northern Illinois University.

Making of America
This site, produced at the University of Michigan, is a digital library of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through Reconstruction. The collection contains approximately 8,500 books and 50,000 journal articles.

The Making of Modern Law: Legal Treatises 1800-1926
Includes over 21,000 works on British Commonwealth and American law. There are 14,900 titles from the nineteenth century and 7,100 titles from 1900-1926.

New York Public Library Digital Library Collection
Provides thousands of digital images from the NYPL collections including historical maps, illuminated manuscripts, and prints and photographs. It contains texts and images from the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

Official Documents of the United Nations (ODS)
This database has the full text of approximately 800,000 documents, most of them published since 1993. Thousands of documents are being added every year, including many published prior to 1993. Resolutions and Decisions from 1946-1993 are available in a separate Resolutions database, accessible through the advanced search screen.

The Perseus Digital Library
This site, produced at Tufts University, provides digital images and transcribed text (in translation or original language) from ancient Greek and Latin sources. Also includes documents related to English Renaissance literature and to London.

UNESCO Archives Portal
Has links to primary sources from international organizations and countries throughout the world. Also links to exhibitions and to ongoing digitization projects.

United States National Archives & Records Administration
Provides digital images of many important documents in American history as well as the text transcript of these documents. Also has links to the presidential libraries where other digitized primary documents may be found.

Victorian Women Writers Project
The goal of the project is to produce accurate transcriptions of works by British women writers of the 19th century. Includes novels, poetry, political pamphlets, and religious tracts. Hosted by Indiana University.

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents
Contains text and PDF versions of statements, messages, and other Presidential materials issued by the White House. Available at this site from 1993 to January 29, 2009 and in PDF format only at HeinOnline (see Federal Register Library) from 1965-2007. The Weekly Compilation has been replaced by the Daily Compilation of Presidential Documents.

Women Working, 1800-1930
Provides access to digitized resources selected from Harvard's library and museum collections. These materials address the role of women in the US economy between 1800 and the Great Depression. Currently contains 3,500 books and pamphlets, 1,200 photographs, and 7,500 pages from manuscript collections.

World War I Document Archive
Extensive collection of transcribed documents related to World War I. Includes official documents, diaries, books, and images. Hosted by Brigham Young University Library.

Locating Manuscript Collections in Archives and Other Repositories

There are many archives and libraries throughout the world that hold important collections of primary documents. The Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center at Boston University is one of them. To find other collections, check the National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections and Repositories of Primary Resources. The National Union Catalog is a guide to manuscript holdings in the United States. Repositories of Primary Sources has links to over 5,000 archives and other repositories in the United States, Canada, Latin America, Europe, Asia and Africa.

Other Research Guides

Because primary sources vary by discipline, subject research guides compiled by Boston University librarians may be useful in identifying primary sources in a particular subject area. There is a guide specifically for primary sources in IR/Political Science. There is also a guide to the Archives and Primary Resources for the Study of Africa.

Citing Primary Resources

There are numerous style manuals in the library that provide information about citation format. They include the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (XBF767 P83 2010), MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing (XPN147 G444 2008), and the Chicago Manual of Style (XZ253 U69 2003). Information about citing online sources is available at a number of websites including: