Finding Primary and Secondary Sources
Primary sources are documents, document collections, artifacts from the past. They can include though are not limited to: diaries, memoirs, letters, government documents, literature, paintings, film, photos, sculpture, architecture, and so forth. Primary sources can be found in archives and published as single documents or in collections either in print form or electronically (cd-rom and the web). To learn more about the differences between documents, edited collections, and archival collections, view these two videos:
Documents Developing a Collection for Research Projects
Secondary sources are interpretations of the past; the authors, amateur and professional historians, advance a thesis or tell a story drawing upon primary sources and what other historians have interpreted.
Historiography is the history of historical interpretation over time since the event occurred, the individual lived, or the idea developed.
"Historians, ancient and modern, have always known ... that any work of history is vulnerable on three counts: the fallibility and deficiency of the historical record on which it is based; the fallibility and selectivity inherent in the writing of history; and the fallibility and subjectivity of the historian."
Gertrude Himmelfarb, On Looking into the Abyss (1994)
News Stories about Research in History
National Archives and Records Administration: Can we depend upon the NARA to preserve records essential to U.S. History? Three related sources: ICE Detainee Records Schedule Nears Completion (21 June 2019); The National Archives is Deleting Records about Trump's ICE Policies (11 February 2020); Erasing History: The National Archives is Destroying Records about Victims of Trump's ICE Policies (6 February 2020)
Untold Stories briefly explains the importance of conducting oral histories. (Pulse of the Planet, 15 January 2016)
Hidden History discusses how oral histories are the only way to record the past, especially of everyday people. (Pulse of the Planet, 14 January 2016)
Looting from other Disciplines to do Research
How to detect fake news stories
The Psychological Dimension Behind Climate Negotiations (NPR, 7 December 2015) discusses how climate change negotiations illustrate that human beings behave irrationally.
Archaeologists Dig to Complete Revolutionary War History (NPR, 5 December 2015)
Historic Chemistry Lab with Links to Thomas Jefferson Discovered Behind Wall (NPR, 19 October 2015)
Big-Data Project on 1918 Flu Reflects Key Role of Humanists (Chronicle of Higher Education, 27 February 2015)
More American than you Might Think Believe in Conspiracy Theories (NPR, 4 June 2014)
Military Conflict Decisions: Why Weakness Leads to Aggression (NPR, 10 March 2014)
Change a Word or Two and You'll Change the Whole Debate (NPR, 14 February 2014)