by Socrates

Created on: March 06, 2007   Last Updated: May 08, 2007

A primary source document or some other evidence written or created during the time under study. The word primary refers to creation by the actual people involved.
Written sources are often the most obvious forms of primary sources. An example of a original work would be a diary. Samuel Pepys left a private diary that he kept from 16601669 that was published after his death. It is considered to be one of the most important primary sources for this time period. It is evidence of his personal thoughts and eyewitness accounts of the English Restoration Period, it also includes accounts of events like the Great Plague of London and the Great Fire of London. This would be a primary source used to study this time period. Likewise in twenty hears students might be studying the diaries and blogs of New York school children after September 11, 2001 to study American reactions to the attacks on the the New York World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and also a down plane in Pennsylvania. Legal documents such as court records, birth and death certificates are important primary sources. You can access from 1375-1854 the history in an English village through it official records.

In a more complicated sense is you are studying historiography (the study of history) a secondary source becomes a primary source but this is rare. In a historian's biography the historian's books, lecture notes, published essays would be primary sources. Also, documentary films can be sometimes be considered a primary source if they have not modified the original sources.

Sound recordings are also primary sources. Franklin Delano Roosevelt's "Fireside Chats" would be excellent primary sources to study if you wanted to learn about the impact of the media, presidential use of media to influence public policy and public opinion. Also, sound recording made by Richard Nixon made news when he was in office during the Watergate Scandal.

Video recording are a great source of primary documentation. If you were studying the assassination of John F. Kennedy you would need to study the Zapruder film. No major news network recorded the assassination because the location was not considered newsworthy. A citizen named Abraham Zapruder recorded a silent, 8 mm color home movie of the presidential motorcade on November 22, 1963 that lasted a little over 22 seconds. The film is the most complete visual recording of the assassination of the president.

Original works such as art, architecture, literature and music are primary sources used to study the culture and many other aspects of a time period. Photographs and coins are primary sources as are many archaeological artifacts.

Primary sources are seen as the basis for research.

Learn more about this author, Socrates.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.