Learn the differences between primary and secondary sources.

1. Sources of
History

2. Objectives
To learn the differences
between primary and
secondary sources.
To identify examples of primary
and secondary sources.
To demonstrate that context
matters in identifying whether a
source is primary or secondary.

3. When historians “do history” they consult
different kinds of sources:
PRIMARY SECONDARY

4. Primary Sources
• Primary sources are documents, recordings,
photographs, drawings, first-hand accounts, from
the time period under study.
Example: A historian wants to know about how the New
Deal programs under President Franklin Roosevelt
impacted their community. They might consult the local
newspaper archive at their local library, or find digital
newspapers from an online database, such as Chronicling
America from the Library of Congress.

5. Secondary Sources
• Secondary sources are the books, journal articles,
documentaries, exhibits, and things about an event,
person, idea, or topic from the past, using primary
sources.
Example: A historian writes a book about the impact of the
New Deal, using the newspapers they found at the library.
Ken Burns produces a documentary about national parks
featuring interviews with park rangers and historians,
showing dramatic photographs and sweeping
cinematography.

6. Primary or Secondary?
• Some kinds of sources can be both primary or
secondary sources, depending on some factors,
such as how they are used.
Example: A newspaper article from December 8, 1941,
about the attacks on Pearl Harbor. That’s a primary source.
But what about a newspaper article about the Pearl Harbor
attacks on December 7, 1991? That is probably a
secondary source, unless the historian is writing about the
memory or commemoration of the Pearl Harbor attacks.

7. Another
way to
think about
it…
Primary sources tell us what
people in the past were
thinking, doing, experiencing,
and sometimes, what they
were feeling. Example: Anne
Frank’s diary while she and
her family were hiding from
Nazis is a good example of
this.

8. Another
way to
think about
it…
Secondary sources are historians’
contribution to knowledge about the
past, and make an original
argument. Historians’ works often
“speak” to each other, in what we
call historiography. Example: Alfred
Crosby’s work, The Columbian
Exchange: Biological and Cultural
Consequences of 1492 shed new
light on the impact of Christopher
Columbus’s “discovery” of the ”New
World” on Native populations.

9. Review
PRIMARY SOURCES ARE FROM THE
TIME PERIOD UNDER STUDY.
SECONDARY SOURCES ARE ABOUT
A TOPIC, PRODUCED FROM A TIME
AFTER THE PERIOD UNDER STUDY.