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Primary vs. Secondary Sources
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When conducting historical research it is important to be aware of the differences between primary and secondary sources.

Primary sources are the materials in which future interpretations, reviews, studies of commentaries are based. Often they serve as original and first-hand documentation of a particular event or era and enable a researcher to get an unbiased as possible account of the topic at hand.

Examples of Primary Sources include:

  • Advertisements
  • Artifacts (clothing, eating utensils, furniture, tools)
  • Art work (paintings, movies, music, poetry)
  • Diaries and memoirs
  • Government records (statistics, census rolls)
  • Interviews
  • Letters, memos or telegrams
    		•
  • Maps
    		•
  • Original research
  • Photographs
    		•
  • Public opinion polls
  • Records of organizations (minutes, reports, correspondence)
  • Speeches
    		•
  • Treaties, laws and court rulings
    		•

    Secondary Sources interpret or analyze primary sources and are usually written or produced some time after the initial event took place or work was produced.

    Examples of Secondary Sources include:

  • Books
  • Dissertations
  • Documentaries
    		•
  • Essays
  • Film Reviews
  • Literary Criticism
    		•
  • Periodical Articles
    		•

    Examples of Primary and Secondary Sources

    Primary Source

    Secondary Source

    Martin Luther King's
    I Have a Dream Speech

    A chapter in a book on the impact of that speech on the civil rights movement

    Margaret Bourke White photographs of Dust-Bowl farmers during the Great Depression

    An essay on efforts made by the Roosevelt administration to offer economic assistance to inhabitants of that area

    Romeo and Juliet by
    William Shakespeare

    An article in a literary journal about symbolism in that play

    The Treaty of Versailles

    Versailles, 1919: The Forces, Events and Personalities That Shaped the Treaty by Ferdinand Czernin

    Journal article reporting on a study on the impact of an experimental drug for diabetes

    A literature review of current research on diabetes treatment

    Concert in Manhattan Square Park

    Review of concert in the City newspaper

    Results of an opinion poll given to college students in the United States on the war in Iraq

    An article in Newsweek on the attitudes of young people toward the war

    A. Harrington, 8/2004, http://www.monroecc.edu/go/library

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