Primary vs. Secondary Examples
Painting: 0 votes (0%)
Letter: 0 votes (0%)
Textbook: 13 votes (100%)
Newspaper article: 0 votes (0%)
Total Votes: 13
What is a primary source?
Primary sources are sources that were created during the time period a researcher is studying, and provide firsthand evidence about a person, event, work of art, or object. This can include:
- letters or other forms of direct communication
- creative writing such as novels, poems, or plays
- speeches
- newspapers
- works of art, photographs, and music recordings
- eyewitness accounts
- interviews
- maps
Primary Source Databases with Visuals
- Primary Source Collections provided by A.M. Explorer This link opens in a new windowEnables cross searching of 88 primary source collections covering a wide range of humanities and social science subjects.
- ARTStor This link opens in a new windowDatabase of digital images that may be used for academic purposes only. These collections are interdisciplinary, supporting research and teaching in both the humanities and social sciences.
- Women and Social Movements, International 1840 to Present This link opens in a new window
Digital primary source archive containing conference proceedings; reports of international women's organizations; publications of women's NGOs; and letters, diaries, and memoirs of women active internationally since the mid-1800s.
Television and Radio Archives
- American History in Video This link opens in a new windowMore than video: a collection of newsreels, archives, public affairs footage, and documentaries, both commercial and government sponsored.
- British Pathe ArchivesContains audio clips of news, sports, social history and entertainment from 1896 to 1970s. Still frames or "storyboards of clips" are free, but registration is required for the free previews.
- CBC Digital ArchivesContains a selection of radio and television clips from the Archives of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC).
- Internet Archive: TV NewsCreated by the Internet Archive this project brings together over 577,000 news broadcasts of various origins since 2009. Useful to students of communications, media, and related fields. Visitors can search all of the captions from each program on the homepage or look at the Recent Extracted Topics word cloud.
- Moving Image Research CollectionMoving Image Research Collections (MIRC) strives to preserve our global moving image heritage, diversify understandings of moving image culture, and envision a better future by encouraging new interpretations of the recent past. MIRC began in 1980 with the gift of the Fox Movietone News Collection.
- National Public Broadcasting and Library of American BroadcastingThe University of Maryland's Special Collections in Mass Media & Culture holds a wide-ranging collection of resources documenting the history of radio and television broadcasting. Important collections include the National Public Broadcasting Archives (NPBA) and the Library of American Broadcasting (LAB).
- Vanderbilt Television News ArchiveContains individual network evening news broadcasts from the major U.S. national broadcast networks, including ABC, CBS, NBC, and CNN.
- CBC Digital ArchivesContains a selection of radio and television clips from the Archives of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC).
- National Public Broadcasting and Library of American BroadcastingThe University of Maryland's Special Collections in Mass Media & Culture holds a wide-ranging collection of resources documenting the history of radio and television broadcasting. Important collections include the National Public Broadcasting Archives (NPBA) and the Library of American Broadcasting (LAB).
Newspaper Databases
- Access World News Research Collection This link opens in a new windowProvides news coverage from a wide variety of global news outlets.
- America's Newspapers This link opens in a new windowContains the full text content of over 650 U.S. newspapers.
- Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new window"Historical Newspapers contains four major historical resources:
Palmer's Index to the Times which covers the period from 1790 to 1905 in The Times; The Official Index to the Times which takes the coverage forward from 1906 to 1980; The Historical Index to the New York Times which covers The New York Times from 1851 to September 1922; Palmer's Full Text Online, 1785-1870, providing access to the full articles referenced in Palmer's index to the Times" - Newspapers.com - Library Edition This link opens in a new windowContains full page newspaper images with searchable full-text for millions of pages of United States newspapers. This version does not include The Morning Call.
- NexisUni This link opens in a new windowDatabase from LexisNexis® featuring more than 15,000 news, business and legal sources, including U.S. Supreme Court decisions dating back to 1790. Primarily in English but some foreign language news as well.
- New York Times (Historical Newspapers) This link opens in a new windowA full-image archive that includes the entire historical run of The New York Times, since 1851.The database delivers every page of every issue from cover to cover, with full-page and article images in downloadable PDF.
- Philadelphia Inquirer (Historical Newspapers) This link opens in a new windowA full-image archive that covers the Philadelphia Inquirer from 1860-2001. The database delivers every page of every issue from cover to cover, with full-page and article images in downloadable PDF.
- Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Historical Newspapers) This link opens in a new windowA full-image archive that covers the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette from 1786-2003. The database delivers every page of every issue from cover to cover, with full-page and article images in downloadable PDF.