What Are Primary Sources?
In the study of history as an academic discipline, a primary source is an artifact, document, diary, manuscript, autobiography, recording, or any other source of information that was created at the time under study.
Primary sources are the most direct evidence of a time or event because they were created by people or things that were there at the time or event. These sources offer original thought and have not been modified by interpretation. Primary sources are original materials, regardless of format.
Archives Unbound collections contains a wide variety of primary source types, including monographs (books or essays), personal papers, letters, newspapers, pamphlets, transcripts, files, interviews, reports, government documents, and more.
Explore the documents below to examine the different types of primary source materials you may encounter in Archives Unbound.
Newspapers and Pamphlets
"The Freewoman, A Weekly Feminist Review"
Full Title: The Freewoman, Volume 1, Issue 25, May 9, 1912
Publication Date: May 9, 1912
Language: English
Pages: 20
Language: English
Document Type: Newspaper
Source Library: Various Sources
The Freewoman was an English feminist weekly newspaper published for a little less than a year between November 1911 and October 1912. This newspaper published a variety of content on women's work, motherhood, literature, and the suffrage movement, but it became notorious for it's frank discussions of sexuality, morality, and marriage. Given it's time of publication and the historical content of the suffrage moment, what impact might a women-led journal had on feminist circles? How are topis such as homosexuality, 'free love' and female singlehood treated in this short-lived publication?
Testimony and Eye Witness Accounts
"Testimony Against Max Gymnich (Concentration Camps Eyewitness Accounts)"
Full Title: Testimony Against Max Gymnich. The 'Final Solution' (September 1939-1945): Concentration Camps: Alphabetical Order. Eyewitness Accounts
Author: Moschewitz, Selma
Date: n.d. (not dated)
Language: English
Document Type: Manuscript
Manuscript Number: 057-EA-1227. P.III.H. No.1030e
Source Library: Wiener Library
This document is one of several eyewitness accounts of the actions of Nazi soldiers and leaders within German concentration camps. The vast majority of the accounts were given by previous camp prisoners and the testimony is a mix of German and English. What is the value of this type of primary source material? What are the potential fallbacks?
A Sermon (Later Published In Print)
"Sermon on beneficience or universial charity"
Full Title: Sermon on beneficience or universial charity : preached in Republican Township, Jefferson County, Indiana, before a numerous congregation who approved of the same
Variant Title: Lecture
Author: Hanning, John
Publication Date:1846
Imprint: Savannah [Ga.?] : Printed by Edward C. Councell, 1846.
Pages: 36
Language: English
Document Type: Monograph
Physical Description: 36 p. ; 21 cm
Source Library: Huntington Library
This document is a published transcript of a sermon delivered in 1836 before a congregation in Indiana. The speaker was John Hanning, Clergyman of the Church of Scotland and the publisher of the printed version (published ten years later) is the widow of the speaker. The document itself is clean and easily read. Given the time between the original oration and the printed version, researchers may want to consider the methods with which the sermon was recalled (was it transcribed afterwards or written down before delivery) and the motivations and opinions of widow who published the transcript of the sermon.