IV - Primary and Secondary Sources Lesson

Primary sources are original records. They are produced by the people who participated in and witnessed the past. They offer a variety of points of view as well as perspectives of those events, issues, people, and places. They are firsthand experiences of an event.

Some examples of primary sources are the following:

• Audio—oral histories or memoirs, interviews, music
• Images—photographs, videos, film, fine art
• Objects—clothing (fashion or uniforms), tools, pottery, gravestones, inventions, weapons, memorabilia
• Statistics—census data, population statistics, weather records
• Text—letters, diaries, original documents, legal agreements, treaties, maps, laws, advertisements, recipes, genealogical information, sermons/lectures

Secondary Sources

Secondary sources are materials that were created after the event. These materials might tell you about an event, person, time or place, but they were created by someone not from the time period. Some examples of secondary sources are history books, school textbooks, encyclopedias, history magazines, websites, journal articles, almanacs, encyclopedias and documentaries. 

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