Primary and Secondary Sources

1
Primary and Secondary Sources

• Where do historians get their information??

2
Where??

• Historians use a wide variety of sources to
  answer questions about the past. In their
  research, history scholars use both primary
  sources and secondary sources

3
Primary Source

• What is a primary source?
• Primary sources are actual records that have
  survived from the past.
• Examples include
• letters
• documents
• photographs/posters
• articles of clothing
• original speeches written by actual people

4
Primary Source Examples

• Primary sources are actual records that have
  survived from the past.

An original slave reward poster
Washingtons handwritten farewell address
Declaration of Independence
An actual drawing from Meriwether Lewis from his
journal
5
Secondary Source

• What is a secondary source?
• Secondary sources are accounts of the past
  created by people writing about events sometime
  after they happened. Examples include
• history textbook
• Books written about famous people in history
  (biographies)
• A conversation with someone about famous people
  in history

6
Secondary Source Examples

• Secondary sources are accounts of the past
  created by people writing about events sometime
  after they happened.

A conversation about Thomas Jefferson with Thomas
Jeffersons great-great-great granddaughter
A book written about George Washington (a
biography)