Student Essay - What Is A Primary Source?

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Lesson 4
Student Essay: What Is A Primary Source?
by Susan McGowan

Think of a primary source as a "rough draft" of history. It needs to be put in a larger context and not accepted for itself alone.

A primary source is one that was written at the time of the period under study. A primary source can be any one of the following:

A written account
Diaries, letters, ledgers, account books, notes, vital records, bills, wills, inventories, military records, tax records
A published account
An account that was published as well as newspapers, books, periodicals, almanacs, cookbooks, broadsides, travel books, children's literature, novels, poetry, pamphlets, sermons, advertisements
An image
Paintings, drawings, photographs, lithographs, woodcuts, maps, video, film
An artifact
Buildings, machines, objects, clothing, weapons, etc.
The physical environment
The built environment
A human being
Anyone alive or whose voice and thoughts were captured by an electronic recording may be considered a primary source for their life experiences. They are "eyewitnesses" to history.

***Remember - Just because something is a primary source does not mean it is accurate or truthful. A person may be an eyewitness to an event and still not see it all or understand what they have witnessed.

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