Primary Source Materials
What are Primary Source Materials?
Researchers often use firsthand accounts of specific events, or direct investigations to understand events from the viewpoint of people living during that time period. Primary materials can be:
- Diaries
- News stories - from the time of an event
- Congressional hearings
- Interviews or oral traditions/oral histories
- Letters
- Manuscripts
- Laboratory notes
- Field observations
- Visual documents include photographs, films, paintings, and other types of artwork
Look for 
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Search for Primary Sources
Primary source materials can be found in a variety of locations, including within books, newspapers, article bibliographies or by visiting archives or manuscripts collections. Students at WPI often need to find news articles during the time of an event.
Web searching also provides access to many online document collections. See Using Primary Sources on the Web for links to major collections.
Web
- Search web using keywords or phrases: such as primary sources, diary of xxx, xxx correspondence, etc. or other examples under Books: Subject Headings
- Examples:
- Search for specific government documents for example:
- Congressional Documents | Reports | Hearings only past 5-10 years online, such as Space Shuttle Columbia hearing before house subcommittees. For older U.S. Congressional Serials Set documents, visit Worcester Public Library (1812+)
News
- New York Times via ProQuest Historical Newspapers (1851-2003); WPI also owns 1963-1996 on Microfilm, or for current articles search LexisNexis Academic for 1980+ full text (index and abstracts from 1969+)
- Newspaper Abstracts - Wall Street Journal indexed 1977+, others 1980s or 1990s to the present
- Looking for newspapers of the 18th, 19th centuries? Attempt to track down a source from the time/place you are researching, such as Concise History of the British Newspaper Since 1620. Is there an index or searchable archive of the news contents? If not, some researchers resort to browsing dates/times of the event they are looking into.
Journal and Magazine Archives
- Reader's Guide Retrospective - indexes periodical literature 1890 - 1982
- Poole's Index to Periodical Literature. 1802-1907 Worcester Public Library - Periodicals Index area
- Searching for a specific title, to find out where it's indexed?
- Check our journals list to find out if we have the title online or in print (check the final volume of each year, many journals/magazines have an annual index)
- Looking for a title not at WPI? Check WorldCat to find another library that you may be able to visit.
- Other electronic databases with backfiles, or indexing beyond 50+ years:
- JSTOR 1880s+
- SciFinder Scholar (chemistry/science) 1907+
- EBSCOhost Business Source Premier (business, management, corporate events) 1922+
- Handbook of Latin American Studies (HLAS) 1935+
- PAIS Archive (public policy, global issues) 1915-1976
- PsycINFO (psychological literature) 1887+
Books
Many primary source documents are republished in books, or even referenced within books on historical topics. Examples of materials at WPI Gordon Library or Beyond by searching WorldCat (Consider searching keywords in blue along with your own topic):
- Journals / Herman Melville
- Papers of Benjamin Franklin / Leonard W. Labaree, editor
- Lincoln Letters. Abraham Lincoln (in Special Collections - WPI Archives)
- Journals of the House of Representatives of Massachusetts. v.46-v.55. 1770-1779
- A Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution / edited by Merrill Jensen
- Behind the Picture : Art and Evidence in the Italian Renaissance / Martin Kemp
- A Documentary History of Biochemistry, 1770-1940 / Mikulás Teich with Dorothy M. Needham
- Bibliography of United States landslide maps and reports
- The story of America as reported by its newspapers, 1690-1965
- Records of Salem Witchcraft, Copied from the Original Documents.
- Autobiographical notes / [by] Albert Einstein. Translated and edited by Paul Arthur Schilpp
- Observations of the eruptions of July 22 and August 7, 1980, at Mount St. Helens, Washington / by Richard P. Hoblitt.
Subject Heading Search
Use Advanced Search in Library Catalog or check WorldCat , but be aware that these types of materials cannot always be borrowed via Interlibrary Loan:
- Manuscripts
- Bibliography
- Facsimiles
- Letters
- History sources
- Sources
- Correspondence
- Personal narratives
- Early works to 1800
- Memoirs
- See Yale's Library of Congress Subject Headings - to Identify Primary Source Materials for more
Web Sites
- Digital Collections
- Using Primary Sources on the Web
- Library of Congress American Memory Project
- Internet History Sourcebooks Project: Historic collections
Archives & Manuscript Collections
- WPI Special Collections - items are listed in the Library Catalog.
- Primary materials include WPI Publications: catalogs; student newspapers and yearbooks; alumni publications; campus directories and handbooks; brochures; Presidential papers: correspondence of WPI's presidents to 1950; reports to trustees
- American Antiquarian Society - Across Salisbury Street from WPI
- Archives in New England
- Repositories of Primary Sources
Need help Tracking down Primary Sources?
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Last modified: Sep 04, 2009, 09:06 EDT
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