Primary sources are documents (or other kinds of materials) that were created in the past that can be used by researchers in the present to gain insight into a specific time period. Primary sources provide ideas and evidence about events in the past. Scholars use the evidence found in primary sources to draw conclusions and construct narratives about the past.
Primary sources can include datasets, diaries, speeches, manuscripts, photographs, letters, oral history interviews, news film footage, autobiographies, official records, meeting minutes, and more.
Please note: Most Library resources do not allow automated or systematic downloading of articles or creation of corpuses for textual analysis. Using scripts or software to download content can cause loss of access for the entire campus as well as suspension of individual accounts. Please contact the Library before beginning a project so we can advise you of your possible options.
Try adding one of these terms to your search, as keywords or subject terms, to find records for primary sources in the Library's catalog.
These guides have additional resources that can help you find specific kinds of primary sources.