Skip to Main Content

Primary and Secondary Sources: History

  • Diaries
  • Letters
  • Maps
  • Objects (66)

Booth, Wayne C., et al. The Craft of Research. 4th ed. U of Chicago P, 2016

A "rigid classification of primary or secondary sources can distort and misrepresent. It is impossible to assign a label to a source without knowing how it is used as evidence. The nature of a source does not derive from the kind of object it is, but rather from the purpose it serves in a historical investigation" (164).

Scheuler, Steven. "Primary and Secondary Sources in History: A Primer for Undergraduates, Challenges for Librarians." The Reference Librarian, vol. 55, no. 2, pp. 163-167, doi:10.1080/02763877.2014.881274.