Public History

If you are not sure where to begin, try Saint Search to search many databases at once.

Primary sources are items created contemporaneously to the event or time period you are studying. First hand accounts created after the fact are also considered primary sources. Visit Making Sense of Evidence for strategies for analyzing online primary materials.

Examples include:

• Speeches
• Diaries
• Autobiographies/Memoirs
• Letters
• Interviews
• Images
• Audio or Video Recordings
• Newspaper Articles
• Magazine/Periodical Articles (written at the time studied)
• Archival Records/Logs/Data
• Political/Legal Documents

Note that some items that began their lives as secondary sources may be used as a primary source for your research. For example, a 1950's textbook discussing the Civil War and Reconstruction would not be a primary source about the Civil War. However, it could be a primary source regarding attitudes towards African Americans during the Civil Rights Era. Check the Academic Web Resources for U.S. History tab of this guide for many additional sources of primary material.

The Public Historian
Link to JSTOR with content through 2019

Link to Publisher's Website with citations for most recent 3 years
Interlibrary Loan to request most recent articles (copy and paste into form)