Primary Source Examples
Some examples of primary sources are, “maps, pamphlets, posters, advertisements, newspaper articles, personal letters, diaries, prescriptions, wills, school records, guest registers, memberships, financial records, census records, oral histories, [or] speeches.”
Other examples for students can come from personal items that they may not initially think of such as, “baby books, birth announcements, birthday cards, bus passes, concert tickets, doodles in notebooks, e-mail messages, films, graffiti, homework assignments, invitations, lunch tickets, notes passed in class, old cookbooks, paintings, phone messages, photographs, postage stamps, postcards, school programs, songs, souvenirs, trading cards, [or] wrapping paper”
Johnson, Mary. (2003). Primary Sources in the Library: A collaboration guide for library media specialists. Linwood Publishing, Inc. Worthington, Ohio.
That's right, scholars, the Presidential Tweets are primary source materials!
The "Library of Congress, repository of more primary source collections and more primary source expertise than any other institution in the world… [says]:
Primary sources are original items or records that have survived from the past, such as clothing, letters, photographs, and manuscripts. They were part of a direct personal experience of a time or event.
Boyd, Ron. [Clipping: Gay activism takes GUTS], clipping, May 8, 1988
Other cultural institutions may offer variations on the Library of Congress definition, but all of them list some combination of the following:
Johnson, Mary. (2009). Primary Source Teaching the Web 2.0 Way. Linwood Publishing, Inc. Worthington, Ohio.
If you need help finding primary sources, please contact the LGBTQ Studies Librarian, Julie Leuzinger.
