Identifying & Locating Primary Sources
A
primary source is firsthand testimony or direct evidence about a topic, often they reflect the individual viewpoint of a
participant or observer. Primary sources get as close as possible to what
actually happened during a historical event or time period.
Subheadings
that identify materials as primary sources are:
correspondence/ letters & memos
diaries
early works to 1800
interviews
pamphlets
periodicals
personal narratives
realia
sources
Secondary Sources
Remember, a primary source
on its own is likely only a small piece of history or snapshot (in time) of the
full picture. Serials -- magazines and newspapers -- often offer the most
immediate published accounts of and reactions to historical events.
Reference sources and secondary analyses give you a framework for interpreting
primary sources. They describe, analyze, interpret, or review your primary
source. Generally, secondary sources include books or scholarly journal
articles or essays.
Try
using the new resource American Decades Primary Sources
Reference E169.1 A471977 2004
Using
the Library Catalog: Strategies for Finding Primary Sources
Subject Search
The Western Libraries
Library Catalog uses Library of Congress subject headings. A
Subject search uses the EXACT subject heading used by the Library of
Congress. While some subject headings are clear cut (i.e. the name of a
person), sometimes subject headings are surprising. For example if you
were to enter "Civil War" as a Subject search, you would locate books
about civil war in general and discover that there have been hundreds of
different civil wars throughout history.
The Library of Congress subject heading for the
American Civil War is "United
States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865."
Keyword Search
You can
access subject headings with a broader Keyword search. For example,
enter "slaves united states narratives" as a Keyword
search. Click on the subject heading
to collect ALL the other items classified by the same subject
heading.
Secondary Sources:
Use
specialized encyclopedias, historical dictionaries, chronologies and
biographical dictionaries to:
1.
Get an
idea of the kind of topic you want to research by studying a brief historical
outline of a time period, a historical event,
a person, or a particular
social movement.
2.
Gain
background information and an overview of your topic or event, and the people
involved.
3.
Identify
key participants, dates and publications associated with your
topic.
·
Pick out
names of people, organizations, and governmental agencies that were
participants.
Search
the Library Catalog under AUTHOR for the people, organizations, and agencies
for materials that were written
or produced by them either at the time of
the event or later.
Search as subject
for names,
dates, or events and place names, in the library catalog and in periodical and
newspaper indexes.
·
Look at
the bibliographic lists of publications such as reports, newsletters, magazines,
pamphlets, etc. that they produced in conjunction
with the events you are
researching. Search the Library Catalog under TITLE.
LOCATING
NEWSPAPERS AND PERIODICALS IN WESTERN’S LIBRARY
When you have identified
specific articles that would be useful, search for the periodical title
in the Library Catalog to see if we have the periodical.
Use
the JOURNAL search.
For example, you locate the following
article citation using the Readers Guide to Periodical Literature:
Luck of prohibition.
Commonweal 11:571-2 Mr 26 ‘30
Luck of prohibition = title of article
Commonweal
= title of periodical
11
= volume number
571-2 =
page numbers
Mr 26
‘30 = date of
periodical (March 26, 1930)
Search the title of the
periodical “Commonweal” in the Library
Catalog by
JOURNAL.
The catalog tells you the location and the call number,
for each journal
title, as well as the dates we have the journal. A date (1964- ) with a
hyphen after, indicates we have the journal up to the
current
issue.
USE INDEXES TO FIND ARTICLES
IN PERIODICALS AND NEWSPAPERS
Try the indexes listed here
to locate magazine & newspaper articles on a specific person or
event.
America: History & Life (online
database)
Historical
Abstracts (online database)
New York Times Index (1851-present)
Media Collections, Wilson 2 West Microform Index AI21
.N48
Times (London) Index
(1906- present) Media Collections, Wilson 2 West Microform
Index AI21 .T35
Poole's Index to Periodical Literature (1802-1906) Haggard
2 Reference
AI3.P72
Reader's Guide
Retrospective (1890-1982) (online database)
Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature (1905-present)
Haggard 2
Reference
AI3.R4
Other methods of
locating titles by topic include:
1. Search
the Library Catalog under the following Subjects:
·
Newspapers --
Washington State [geographical location]
·
socialism --
newspapers
·
Feminism --
Periodicals
·
slavery --
united states -- periodicals
·
Women's rights
-- Periodicals
2. Use reference books
for exacts dates of events, then look up in a specific
newspaper.
Some other examples of indexes to
newspapers are:
-
Guides
to Historical Newspaper Collections and Specialized Bibliographies of the
Press
Sources provide an overview of the history,
scope, content and influence of magazines and newspapers of the 1800 -
1900's.
Many include extensive bibliographies which identify
historical discussions & events in specific newspapers.
Some are
representative examples of materials discussing media coverage of specific
social issues. Many index the location of sources of microfilm newspaper
collections beyond the Western Library's holdings, as well as index by general
topic or content, newspapers held at the Western Library.
- Radical
Periodicals in the United States
Search catalog for titles within this collection. Call numbers,
locations, and formats vary. Some titles located on microfilm,
others are in print format. Dates vary, but primarily run from
1900-1940.
- Colonial American
Newspapers: Character and Content /
PN4861.C74 1997
Provides a historical
overview of newspapers and their content. Provides comparative content information by year, for several
newspapers.
Includes a subject index.
- A History of Newspapers in
the Pacific Northwest, 1846-1896 / PN4895.B7 1957a
Lists
newspaper titles and provides content analysis and coverage of major social
issues. Check the Library Catalog for newspaper holdings.
- Territorial
Newspapers Card Index <1899 Wilson
2W Microfilm F891.T47 reels 1-7
Detailed subject guide to
articles and news reports published in Olympia, Tacoma, and Seattle newspapers
prior to 1889, but there are also
items indexed in about 1900.
Newspapers indexed are: Daily Pacific Tribune, Pioneer and Democrat,
Seattle Daily Press,
Seattle Gazette, and the Washington
Standard.
Digitized Newspapers, and other
Primary Documents and Collections
American Broadsides and Ephemera, Series 1
1760-1900
American Broadsides is a searchable full text database of 30,000 posters,
proclamations, menus, advertisements, invitations, fliers, stock certificates,
clipper ship sailing cards, early trade cards, bill heads, and theater and music
programs that document political and cultural events, both private and civic
from 1760-1900. Some of the documents are available in color. This database was
created from the collection of the American Antiquarian Society.
American Colonist's
Library
An extensive
"collection of the literature and documents which were most relevant to the
colonists' lives in America."
Early American Newspapers, Series 1, 1690-1876
Early American Newspapers, Series 1, 1690-1876 offers 350,000 fully searchable
issues from over 700 historical American newspapers from 23 states and the
District of Columbia. Focusing largely on the 18th and early 19th centuries,
this online collection is based on Clarence S. Brigham’s “History and
Bibliography of American Newspapers, 1690-1820” and other authoritative
bibliographies. Early American Newspapers, Series 1, 1690-1876 offers 350,000
fully searchable issues from over 700 historical American newspapers. Focusing
largely on the 18th and early 19th centuries, this online collection is based on
Clarence S. Brigham’s “History and Bibliography of American Newspapers,
1690-1820” and other authoritative bibliographies.
Historic Newspapers
Online
National
Archives and Records Administration
United
States Newspaper Program
"The United States Newspaper Program is a cooperative national effort
among the states and the federal government to locate, catalog, and preserve on
microfilm newspapers published in the United States from the eighteenth century
to the present."
Page updated: 8.2008
Robyn Adcox
Reference
Specialist