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IB History 3rd Quarter Projec: Primary Sources

What is a primary source?

Primary sources refer to documents or other items that provide first-hand, eyewitness accounts of events. For example, if you are studying the civil rights movement, a newspaper article published the day after the 1965 Selma to Montgomery march and a memoir written by someone who participated in the march would both be considered primary sources.

Historians use primary sources as the raw evidence to analyze and interpret the past. They publish secondary sources - often scholarly articles or books - that explain their interpretation. When you write a historical research paper, you are creating a secondary source based on your own analysis of primary source material. 

Examples of primary sources include diaries, journals, speeches, interviews, letters, memos, photographs, videos, public opinion polls, and government records, among many other things.

Guide to Evaluating Primary Sources: 

  • Who is the author or creator?
  • ​What biases or assumptions may have influenced the author or creator?
  • Who was the intended audience?
  • What is the origin of the primary source?
  • What was the significance of the source at the time it was created?
  • Has the source been edited or altered in some way from the original?
  • What questions could be answered about the time period by using this source?
  • What, if any, are the limitations of the source?
  • Does your understanding of the source fit with other scholars’ interpretations, or does it challenge their argument?

PLEASE JOIN THE LIBRARY GOOGLE CLASSROOM FOR ALL DATABASE PASSWORDS:  24yg7tg

Database Passwords Link to google classroom

Databases

 

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Select the Advanced Search bar under the Search Box.

  1. Enter your search terms - be as specific as possible.
    1. For names of people, use their first and last name and put it in quotations marks. 
    2. For events, make sure you spell the event correctly and put phrases in quotations. 
      • Examples "World War I" not WW1 of World War one.
      • If you do not receive any results, check your spelling.
  2. Scroll to Content Type and limit your search to Primary Sources.

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1. Enter your search terms - be as specific as possible.

  1. For names of people, use their first and last name and put it in quotations marks. 
  2. For events, make sure you spell the event correctly and put phrases in quotations. 
    • Examples "World War I" not WW1 of World War one.
    • If you do not receive any results, check your spelling.
  3. Select the Results from one of the four databases.
    • Select the drop down box labeled Filters (all the way on the left) and limit your responses to Media and Documents. Select Apply.

 

Historical Newspapers

New York Times   1980 to present

Primary sources are almost always produced in the time period you are researching.

For example, newspaper articles can be both primary and secondary sources.

  • A newspaper article from the time an event happened, for example, an article during the Civil War, would be considered primary, but a newspaper article written today about the Civil War would not.

For Articles prior to 1980, visit the RCPL website and select Historical Newspapers from their research databases. You will need your public library card. If you do no have a card, see Mrs. McGuire

JSTOR

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Websites

Cite a Primary Source in MLA

Author's Last Name, First Name. "Title of Primary Source Document: Subtitle." Year of creation. Title of Website, Publisher of Website, Publication Date, URL. Accessed Day Month Year site was visited.

An example from the National Archives:

"Brief History of the National Parks". Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/collection/national-parks-maps/special-presentation/. Accessed 10 Feb. 2019.