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9th Grade World Cultures Research Guide: Primary Sources

What is a Primary Source?

Primary Sources

  • Materials that contain direct evidence, first-hand testimony, or an eyewitness account of a topic or event under investigation
  • Primary sources provide the raw data for your research
  • Examples:  In addition to diaries, correspondence, photographs, and many other types of sources typically considered to be primary sources, you may add just about anything to the list.  The way you interpret or use a source determines whether it is a primary source or not.

Primary Sources Explained

Types of Primary Sources

  • advertisements
  • artifacts (clothing, currency, furniture, jewelry, musical instruments, pottery, textiles, weapons, etc.)
  • autobiographies
  • buildings/architectural landmarks
  • census records
  • charters
  • charts/graphs
  • correspondence
  • diaries/journals
  • dissertations
  • documentary film/video
  • drawings/cartoons
  • edicts
  • fiction/novels
  • government documents (official text of laws, investigative reports, legislative hearings, etc.)
  • immigration records
  • inscriptions
  • interviews
  • ledgers/financial documents
  • legal documents/court records
  • letters
  • maps
  • manuscripts
  • memoirs
  • music scores
  • news film footage
  • newspaper reports (firsthand)
  • official records
  • oral histories
  • paintings
  • pamphlets
  • personal narratives
  • photographs
  • plays
  • poetry
  • religious texts
  • research data
  • sheet music
  • shipsʻ logs
  • sound recordings (music or spoken word)
  • speeches
  • tablets
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