Examples of Types of Primary Sources
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Slavery in America and the World: History, Culture & LawCollection of legal materials on slavery in the United States and England, including statutes and case law from the colonial, state and federal level.
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Data and Statistics about the U.S.Find data about the U.S., such as maps and population, demographic, and economic data.
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Pew Research Center"The Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan "fact tank" that provides information on the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world. It does so by conducting public opinion polling and social science research." Check out the following sections: Topic Index, Databank, and Projects of the Center.
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Govinfo: U.S. Government Publishing OfficeGovinfo provides free public access to official publications from all three branches of the Federal Government.
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Vital Speeches of the DayLog in using MyHACC ID and Password
Use "search within this publication" option
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American Speeches by Call Number: E183 .A498 2006 AT: HARRISBURG, LANCASTER, LEBANON AND YORKPublication Date: 2006-10-05A historian and former presidential speechwriter presents an unprecedented two-volume collection of the greatest speeches in American history.
Original Research Published in Scholarly Journals
In an EBSCO or Proquest database, limit your search to scholarly/peer-reviewed journals, and make sure that your article has a "method" section.
It is also possible to limit your search to "Primary Source Documents" in some databases.
See below for what an original research article looks like:
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Anatomy of a Scholarly Article (North Carolina State Univ.)An interactive tutorial about the structure of research articles, from the libraries of North Carolina State University.
Primary Sources for Historical Topics
Below are some examples of primary source types that work particularly well with historical topics. Remember that all of these would be *from the time period being studied*:
- Diaries and journals
- Letters and memos
- Oral History
- Film
- Speeches and interviews
- Government documents such as laws, court cases, legislative proceedings, etc.
- Newspapers, pamphlets, advertisements
- Autobiography and memoir
- Photographs
- Art and literary works
- Maps
- Songs & Music