The past is everything that's happened up until this moment. The past can refer thousands of years ago or seconds ago.
History is constructed by scholars who use artifacts from the past to form narratives about what may have happened and what that means. Researchers' interpretations of the past depend on their worldview and which historical records they analyze.
In the context of History and Humanities research:
Watch this short video from the Minnesota Historical Society video (04:19) on differentiating primary and secondary sources.
The document below is a volunteer survey card from the mid-1960s. A local activist group, the Milwaukee United School Integration Committee (aka MUSIC), created and distributed this questionnaire to Milwaukee parents in order to grow their volunteer base and match volunteers with relevant opportunities for involvement.
Read the volunteer survey card below. As you read, reflect on what this card can tells us about the organization MUSIC.
A researcher might use this source to better understand how parents were involved with MUSIC and the fight to integrate Milwaukee Public Schools. The document tell us that:
However, a researcher can't fully understand MUSIC's motives and strategies by analyzing this one piece of evidence. In order to interpret the past, a researcher must analyze and compare multiple primary sources.
Historians aren't the only researchers who analyze primary sources to make meaning of events and phenomena, but the type of primary sources used may be different depending on a researcher's area of study. No matter what type of research being conducted, primary sources are direct, unmediated evidence of the subject matter, and secondary sources summarize, critique, or analyze primary sources.
| Discipline | Primary Source Example | Secondary Source Example |
|---|---|---|
| Biology | A journal article that shares the results of an original research study (the data was collected by the authors) on Africanized Bee distribution in the American Southwest | A review article that synthesizes the findings of multiple studies and analyzes trends in Africanized bee research published in the last 5 years |
| American Literature | Parable of the Sower, a novel by American speculative fiction author Octavia E. Butler | A literary criticism article analyzing the themes of motherhood and disability in Parable of the Sower |
| Economist | A statistical report on the GDP growth of Poland created and published by the World Bank | A scholarly journal article that analyzes the factors impacting GDP growth in Poland |
This video was created by North Carolina State University and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States license.
Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) is a free tool that allows researchers to search across millions of primary source materials from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions across the United States (including the UWM Libraries). DP.LA is your best starting point for finding historical primary sources relevant to American History.
The Digital Public Library of America strives to contain the full breadth of human expression, from the written word, to works of art and culture, to records of America’s heritage, to the efforts and data of science. Contains materials from all the UW System Digital Collections, Recollection Wisconsin, the National Archives and Records Administration, University of California System, the Smithsonian, and the New York Public Library.
Google and other search engines can be a powerful tool for searching for primary sources. There are countless digital collections and library websites with primary sources out there; to find them you'll need to know how to common keywords that describe primary sources and strong web navigation skills.
The UWM Libraries pays for a variety of search tools designed for finding primary sources. To use the search tools linked below, you may be prompted sign in with your UWM user name and password.
Search primary sources and documentary films (secondary sources) related to topics in US and Europe from the following collections: American History in Video; British and Irish Women's Letters and Diaries; Early Encounters in North America; North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries, and Oral Histories; North American Women's Letters and Diaries; The Gilded Age; The Sixties: Primary Documents and Personal Narratives, 1960–1974; Women and Social Movements: Development and the Global South, 1919 - 2019, and Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000.
Primary documents focusing on the history and culture of African Americans, Latino Americans and American Indians.
Explore primary sources from from libraries, museums, archives, and historical societies around the world including artworks, photographs, publications, and other artifacts.
Search across Gale primary source collections, including newspapers, archives, and more.
Launched in 2009, the World Digital Library (WDL) was a project of the U.S. Library of Congress, with the support of UNESCO, and contributions from libraries, archives, museums, educational institutions, and international organizations around the world.
Europeana enables people to explore the digital resources of Europe's museums, libraries, archives and audio-visual collections. It promotes discovery and networking opportunities in a multilingual space where users can engage, share in and be inspired by the rich diversity of Europe's cultural and scientific heritage.
Google and other search engines can be a powerful tool for searching for primary sources. There are countless digital collections and library websites with primary sources out there; to find them you'll need to know how to common keywords that describe primary sources and strong web navigation skills.
The UWM Libraries pays for a variety of search tools designed for finding primary sources. To use the search tools linked below, you may be prompted sign in with your UWM user name and password.
Search primary sources and documentary films (secondary sources) related to topics in US and Europe from the following collections: American History in Video; British and Irish Women's Letters and Diaries; Early Encounters in North America; North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries, and Oral Histories; North American Women's Letters and Diaries; The Gilded Age; The Sixties: Primary Documents and Personal Narratives, 1960–1974; Women and Social Movements: Development and the Global South, 1919 - 2019, and Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000.
Early English Books Online has over 125,000 titles listed in Pollard & Redgrave's Short-Title Catalogue (1475-1640), Wing's Short-Title Catalogue (1641-1700), and the Thomason Tracts (1640-1661). by William Caxton, through the age of Spenser and Shakespeare and the tumult of the English Civil War.
Search across Gale primary source collections, including newspapers, archives, and more.