Nashua North Media Center: U.S. History: Primary Sources

Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Sources

Primary Sources

A primary source is a piece of information about a historical event or period in which the creator of the source was an actual participant in or a contemporary of a historical moment. The purpose of primary sources is to capture the words, the thoughts and the intentions of the past. Primary sources help you to interpret what happened and why it happened.

Examples of primary sources include documents, artifacts, historic sites, songs, or other written and tangible items created during the historical period you are studying.

Secondary Sources

A secondary source is a source that was not created first-hand by someone who participated in the historical era. Secondary sources are usually created by historians, but based on the historian's reading of primary sources. Secondary sources are usually written decades, if not centuries, after the event occurred by people who did not live through or participate in the event or issue. The purpose of a secondary source is to help build the story of your research from multiple perspectives and to give your research historical context.

An example of a secondary source is Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era by James M. McPherson, published in 1988. They are a great starting point in helping you see the big picture. Understanding the context of your topic will help you make sense of the primary sources that you find.

Tertiary Sources

Tertiary sources are based on a collection of primary and secondary sources and may or may not be written by an expert. Tertiary sources should never appear in your bibliography but are only used as exploratory sources, to give you ideas about what to research. Wikipedia is not a reliable source and should not be utilized or appear in your bibliography. Examples are dictionaries, encyclopedias, fact books, and guidebooks.

U.S. History Primary Sources

This is just a small sampling of recommended websites:

100 Milestone Documents
This collection of 100 milestone documents has been compiled by the National Archives and chronicles the history of the U.S. from 1776 to 1965. Sources include public laws, Supreme Court decisions, inaugural speeches, treaties, constitutional amendments, and other documents that have influenced the course of U.S. history. Both original and transcribed copies are available.
American Archive of Public Broadcasting
Contains over 13,000 audio and video files from public television and radio programs from the last sixty years.Strong exhibits on presidential elections and the civil rights movement.
American History Digital Collections (Library of Congress)
Provides free and open access to written and spoken words, sound recordings, still and moving images, prints, maps, and sheet music that document the American experience. It is a digital record of American history and creativity.
Becoming Modern: America in the 1920s
Organized in five themes, each with six to eight sections, BECOMING MODERN includes a multiplicity of genres to represent the broad expansion of media in the Twenties. Films, newsreels, animated cartoons, comic strips, radio broadcasts, and sound recordings are offered in addition to informational texts, fiction selections, visual art, photographs, and music selections.(National Humanities Center)
Chronicling America
A collection of over ten million digitized newspaper pages from across the U.S. dating between 1836 and 1922 that are text searchable.
Digital History: Landmark Documents Organized by Era
(University of Houston)
Docs Teach, from the National Archives
This collection of over 3,000 primary documents is organized by historical era, from the nation’s founding to the present. Documents, including maps, charts, graphs, audio, and video, have been selected by National Archives Staff, and are photographic reproductions of historical sources.
Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
Features more than 60,000 unique historical documents. It's strength is its History by Era and Primary Documents sections.
Great Depression Pictures
Offers a glimpse into the lives of those that suffered through the Great Depression.
Smithsonian Source, from the Smithsonian Institute
This collection of primary sources can be searched by keyword, type, or topic, and includes documents on Westward Expansion, Transportation, Civil Rights, Invention, Colonial America, and Native American history. Each set includes selected and excerpted documents.

U.S. History: Primary Sources

Primary Sources

Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Sources

U.S. History Primary Sources

Primary vs. Secondary Sources (Hartness Library, Vermont State)

Primary vs. Secondary Sources Video using September 11, 2001

Primary vs Secondary Sources