American Studies

As this University of Georgia Libraries video states, "primary sources are documents, artifacts, or other materials created by people directly connected to your topic. A primary source might be connected in this way to:

• an event (like the Riel Rebellion),
• a person (like Malcolm X),
• an idea (like human rights),
• or a broader phenomenon (like science in early Islam)"

Examples of primary sources include: photos, maps, diaries, art, letters, newspaper articles, laws, speeches, audio recordings, autobiographies, oral histories, government records, advertisements, statistics, and material artifacts.

Primary sources, therefore, are original documents and contemporary accounts of an event or phenomenon (UC Santa Cruz Library). 

There are several methods for locating primary sources.

• Search within primary source databases or online collections relevant to your topic and time period.

  • This search will lead you directly to primary sources such as: personal narratives, diaries, letters, memoirs, maps, interviews, autobiographies, photographs, newspapers, artwork, etc.

• Search the library catalog using key terms.

  • This search will result in books and articles containing primary sources within them and other secondary sources discussing background or interpreting the primary sources. Example searches could look like: maroons and narratives, Native American or Indigenous and documents, united states and military and memoirs.
  • Key terms might include "documents," "archives," "primary sources," or the specific format of source you are looking for.
  • Important to note: searching the catalog will not lead you directly to primary sources but instead to books and articles containing them. Primary sources do not show up as individual records in our universal resource search.

• Use Google to narrow your search or identify sources.

  • Search engines can be helpful to identify important sources or documents for your research.