Nevada History Day Research: Primary Sources

Primary materials need to be carefully read and interpreted. Some questions to ask include:

1. Who created the source and for what original purpose?
2. Did the creator have firsthand knowledge?
3. What biases or hidden agendas did the creator have? Is the document meant to persuade or inform?
4. Was the source originally meant to be private or public?
5. When was the source created? Soon after the event, years later?

A primary source is:

• An item created by participants and observers of an event

Primary sources are the evidence left behind by participants or observers of a given event or during a particular period of time. Historians use primary sources to support their interpretation of the past.

Examples of primary sources include

• Newspapers & magazines
• Government reports
• Diaries
• Photographs
• Letters
• Memoirs
• Oral histories
• Film
• Artifacts

The availability and kinds of primary sources vary with time period and topic. For example in times of low literacy, there will be fewer documents and those that exist will come from a certain class of people (those that are literate) or from a governing source. Primary sources for earlier periods of time will be more scarce than for recent times. Though many primary sources have been transcribed and published, primary sources are usually in the original language (though some have been translated into English) so most material from the Russian Revolution is in Russian rather than English.

For links to primary sources available in the UNLV Libraries (these include collections online, in print and on microfilm) as well as to primary source collections freely available on the web see:

• Books

• Government Documents
  • Governments produce a wide array of documents ranging from Congressional or Parliamentary debates and reports, census data, agency or departmental papers to brochures, maps and posters. As primary sources these official governmental publications provide insight into all aspects of history from social issues to politics, from cultural mores to scientific endeavor
• Images

  • Photographs, drawings and other images provide information you can't always get from a text source. Images can provide details of everyday life such as clothing or material culture.

    It is important to keep in mind that photographs are not an unbiased reflection of reality -- the photographer chooses what and how to depict a certain scene.

    Help: Making Sense of Documentary Photographs, Analyzing Photographs, Analyzing Political Cartoons, Analyzing Material Culture, Making Sense of Films, and Making Sense of Advertisements

• Letters & Diaries
  • Letters and diaries provide a personal angle on history and often gives voice to the common person such as the WWI soldier in the trenches or the sweetheart on the homefront. However keep in mind that, like all sources, letters and diaries follow the convention of their times and must be considered in light of the writer's motivations and biases. There are a number of published collections of letters especially those written by well-known historical figures (Walt Whitman or Winston Churchill). Unpublished diaries and letters are found in manuscript repositories such as the Special Collections here at UNLV.
    Help: Making Sense of Letters & Diaries
• Newspaper & Magazine Articles
• Maps
• Oral Histories
  • UNLV Oral History Research Center
  • Oral histories provide a personal angle on history and often gives voice to the common person. However it important to keep in mind that oral histories are subjective and individualistic and that memory is fallible.
• Archival Materials @ UNLV
  •   Learn about using archival materials and finding materials at other repositories with this Archival Toolkit from the SAA

Keep in mind that non-UNLV students must be in the UNLV Libraries to use any of the links that include a lock icon.

American Memory from the Library of Congress provides a wide range of primary source materials in all the categories above.