Types of Primary Sources

Historians are omnivores when it comes to primary sources, where in the past formal documents (legal, religious, administrative) dominated the evidence used in scholarship, historians today are open to a wider variety. Sources can roughly be grouped in two different, but similar, ways:

  • Government records and publications
  • Organizational (including business) records and publications
  • Sources created by individuals
  • Material culture (coins, clothing, buildings)
 OR
  • Written: letters, newspapers, government records, etc.
  • Visual: photographs, art, cartoons, etc.
  • Oral: interviews, recordings, music, etc.
  • Physical: coins, clothing, buildings, etc.

Some sources are published (newspapers, Congressional Record, novel) while others are unpublished when created (diaries, meeting minutes, letters). Some sources are created to be permanent (legal documents), while others are ephemeral (grocery store receipt). Hint: it is easier to access published primary sources and permanent sources rather than unpublished and ephemeral.

Some primary source examples:

TYPE OF SOURCE
 EXAMPLE TYPE OF SOURCE EXAMPLE
Advertisement Where Beauty Begins Links to an external site. (soap) Immigration record Chinese Exclusion Act Case File: Lee Tung Gim Links to an external site.
Autobiography John Washington's Civil War: A Slave Narrative Links to an external site. Letters Kenji Okuda letter to Norio Higano, 11 Dec. 1942 Links to an external site.
Broadside A broad-side against coffee; or, the marriage of the turk (1672) Links to an external site. Map Nova totivs Americæ descriptio (1660) Links to an external site.
Cartoon A bad egg. Fuss and feathers Links to an external site.
 Music Cat duet: When the song of love is heard Links to an external site.
Census records 1930 census form Links to an external site. Newspaper article "Mau Mau Oath Links to an external site.." Guardian, 17 Feb. 1953.
Congressional Hearing Communist Propaganda. : hearings before the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary Links to an external site. Novel Inside the Night by Ibrāhīm Naṣr Allāh Links to an external site.
Diary Nels Anderson’s World War I Diary Links to an external site. Oral history Ruby Inouye Interview Links to an external site.
Documentary Rwanda: History of A Genocide Links to an external site. Photograph Children at Sunday school class, Manzanar Links to an external site.

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