Foreign Languages: Find Primary Sources

Visit ECU's Manuscripts & Rare Books Department to find primary sources, maps, and more!

A primary source is an original, first-hand account of an event or time period. It is usually written or created during or close to the time period under study. Primary sources are:

• Original, creative writing or works of art
• Factual, not interpretive

A secondary source is written sometime after the event occurred. This could be days later or centuries later. Secondary sources are:

• Provide analysis, interpretation, explanation, description and/or evaluation
• Are often based on primary sources.

Examples:

Primary Sources:

• diaries, letters and emails
• speeches, testimony and interviews
• some newspaper articles
• news film or video
• autobiographies
• statistics and raw data sets
• original scientific research
• legislative hearings and bills
• pictures and maps
• poetry, drama, novels, music and art
• artifacts such as jewelry, tombstones, furniture and clothing

Secondary Sources:

• textbooks
• encyclopedias
• literature reviews
• many magazine articles
• journal articles which are not primary reports of new research
• literary criticism of Hamlet
• reviews of books, movies, plays, etc.
• a book written in 1995 about the causes of the French Revolution