Primary Sources
Examples: Diaries, letters, speeches, interviews, eyewitness reports, works of art, novels, poems, photographs, fims, original research)
Secondary Sources
Examples: books and articles that synthesize ideas from primary sources, essay, reviews, etc.
Tertiary Sources
Examples: encyclopedia articles, textbooks, indexes, bibliographies
Keep in mind that the status of a source as primary or secondary depends on the historical question you are asking. For example, an article written today about the British homefront during WWI would be considered secondary. However, if this same topic was written about in 1922, it would be considered primary by someone writing about how historians viewed and wrote about the topic.
Use DISCOVERY to locate primary source materials. Click on the Books/eBooks tab to start.
Use the following databases to locate primary materials
Reveal Digital offers six collections of open-access primary source materials from libraries, museums, historical societies and individual collectors.
⇒ Search by KEYWORDS
⇒Search by SUBJECT
⇒GUIDED (OR ADVANCED) SEARCH
You might want to visit libraries which have collections of manuscripts, papers, organizational records, ephemera or other unpublished materials relating to the people, organizations and agencies involved in the events. These are often original, one-of-a-kind materials. Click on the link above for Hofstra University's Special Collections department.
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