Primary sources, also known as original sources, are first-hand accounts of events, objects, people and phenomena. They are original or ‘raw’ materials that were created contemporaneously with events. But what exactly are they? Manuscripts, journals, letters, emails, diaries, autobiographies, printed ephemera, texts of laws and government publications are common examples. Newspaper articles written by journalists who witnessed a specific event can also be classified as such. Primary sources don’t have to be in a written form though. Artefacts, scrapbooks, photographs and different kinds of audio and video recordings, such as speeches, interviews and oral histories, are also considered to belong to this category along with original survey data, datasets and statistics. Basically, anything that’s original and has not been previously published or interpreted by another person can be considered a primary source.
Why use them?