Historical research: Primary sources
In this guide
- What are primary and secondary sources?
- Why use primary sources?
- Where can I find primary sources?
- Collections of primary sources
- Evaluating primary sources
- Why use secondary sources?
- What are secondary sources?
- Evaluating secondary sources
Links between primary and secondary sources
View these resources to find primary sources curated into collection themes and ways to link to secondary sources through primary sources.
- Adam Matthew Primary Historical Sources Collection
- JSTOR Understanding Series - Linking original works to scholarship
- JSTOR Art & Art History Resource - LibGuide
- JSTOR History Collection - LibGuide
- JSTOR OneSearch list databases
- ARTstor - extensive art and image library from the world's collections.
Also, view our list of subscribed and publicly available collections and search those from Libraries and Archives.
Why Use Primary Sources?
Research involves examining primary sources (original material) to test and validate the point of view or interpretation of the material later published as a reference work or secondary source.
A primary source is direct evidence to the event, person, or subject of research, however on its own it may be difficult to interpret.
Use primary sources to:
- find evidence that challenge interpretations or support one scholar's interpretation over that of another,
- write an interpretation of your own,
- look for more primary sources for evidence to confirm or refute your thesis.
When you present your conclusions, you will have produced another secondary source to aid others in their research.
Where can I find Primary Sources?
Published primary Sources can be found using:
- OneSearch (for known searches. i.e. when you know the title of the primary source.)
- Newspapers (online, print)
- Online databases - See the Databases page to browse databases by subject
- Websites on the internet.
Browsing footnotes and bibliographies in secondary sources such as books, journal articles and theses can be helpful in identifying relevant primary sources.
A commonly asked question is: Can I use a digital copy online or published in a book as a primary source?
Answer: Yes, primary sources are characterised by their content, regardless of whether they are available in their original format, in microform, in digital format, or as a facsimile in a published document.
Collections of Primary Sources
The library subscribes to a number of primary sources databases. In many cases, a primary source is discoverable in OneSearch.
Searching within the database platforms offer more detailed and specialised search features. Under the tabs are a list of some of our subscription databases, plus some online collections available publicly.
National and State Libraries are a rich source of primary source materials, more and more of which are being available online.
For example, Trove provides dedicated search options for Australian materials such as:
- Pictures, photos, objects
- Diaries, letters, archives
- Government Gazettes
- and much more
UWA Library subscription databases for primary sources
Includes a selection of historical primary sources for new newspapers, periodicals and other ephemera from the Asian and European geographic region.
British Historical Primary Sources
Selection of historical primary sources for newspapers, periodicals and other ephemera from the Asia Geographic Region.
- 19th Century British PamphletsThe digitization of more than 26,000 pamphlets from seven UK institutions brings together a corpus of primary sources for the study of sociopolitical and economic factors impacting 19th century Britain.
- British periodicalsBritish Periodicals (Collection I) contains 162 periodicals from the seventeenth, eighteenth, nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. A wide array of different types of periodical are represented, from magisterial quarterlies and scholarly and professional organs through to coterie art periodicals, penny weeklies and illustrated family magazines.
- Defining Gender 1450-1910Explores the study and analysis of gender, leisure and consumer culture, transcending traditional disciplinary boundaries. This collection of original primary source material from British archives includes pamphlets, college records and exam papers, commonplace books, diaries, periodicals, letters, ledgers, account books, government papers from the Home Office and Metropolitan police, illustrated writings on anatomy, midwifery, art and fashion, manuscript journals, poetry, novels, ballads, drama, receipt books, literary manuscripts, travel writing, and conduct and advice literature.
- Early English Books Online (EEBO)A full text collection of books and other printed materials (newspapers and ephemera) published in English prior to 1700. This is an extremely valuable full text resource that includes page images of virtually every work printed in English from 1473-1700. This will provide you with primary source material.
- Eighteenth Century Collections OnlineDigital images of every page of 150, 000 books published during the 18th Century with full text searching in English.
- Empire OnlineThis resource brings together manuscript, printed and visual primary source materials for the study of 'Empire' and its theories, practices and consequences. The materials span across the last five centuries and are accompanied by a host of secondary learning resources including scholarly essays, maps and an interactive chronology.
- India, Raj and EmpireDrawing upon the manuscript collections of the National Library of Scotland, this searchable online resource provides access to digital facsimiles of diaries and journals, official and private papers, letters, sketches, paintings and more.
- London Lives 1690-1800: crime poverty and social policy in the MetropolisLondon Lives makes available, in a fully digitised and searchable form, a wide range of primary sources about eighteenth-century London, with a particular focus on plebeian Londoners. This resource includes over 240,000 manuscript and printed pages from eight London archives and is supplemented by fifteen datasets created by other projects. It provides access to historical records containing over 3.35 million name instances. Facilities are provided to allow users to link together records relating to the same individual, and to compile biographies of the best documented individuals.
- London low life: street culture, social reform and the Victorian underworldLondon Low Life is a full-text searchable resource, containing colour digital images of rare books, ephemera, maps and other materials relating to 18th, 19th and early 20th century London.
Material includes:Fast literature; Street ephemera – posters, advertising, playbills, ballads and broadsides; Penny fiction; Cartoons; Chapbooks; Street Cries; Swell’s guides to London prostitution, gambling and drinking dens; Reform literature; Maps and views of London. - Making of Modern Law: legal treatises, 1800-1926Provides digital images on every page of 22,000 legal treatises on US and British law published from 1800 through 1926.
- Making of Modern Law: trials, 1600-1926Based on holdings of the law libraries of Harvard and Yale, and the Library of the Bar of the City of New York as well as some from the British Library. See more information for collection details.
- Making of the Modern World, ThePreviously Goldsmiths'-Kress library of economic literature
Provides full-text and full-page-image access to books from the 1460-1850 period, and pre-1906 serials. See more information for subject coverage - Mass Observation OnlineMass Observation was a pioneering social research organisation founded in 1937 to record everyday life in Britain. This online resource contains primary material gathered by Mass Observation from 1937-1955, including diaries and questionnaires sent in by its panel of volunteers, and research gathered by paid investigators in the form of File reports and Topic collections.
- Medieval Family LifeThe Paston, Cely, Plumpton, Stonor and Armburgh papers: contains full colour images of the original medieval manuscripts that comprise these family letter collections along with full text searchable transcripts from the printed editions, where they are available.
- Picture Post Historical Archive, 1938-1957Picture post historical archive comprises the complete archive of the Picture post from 1938 to 1957, digitized from originals in full color. This database allows browsability by issue or contributor; and searchability by keyword, article title, caption, contributor name, entire document, or record number.
- Proceedings of the Old Bailey, 1674-1913Provides access to the text of criminal trials held at London's Central Criminal Court from 1674 to 1834 and to information on the historical and legal background to trials at the Old Bailey.
- Romanticism: Life, Literature and LandscapeThis digital resource offers unparalleled access to the single largest collection of working notebooks, verse manuscripts and correspondence of William Wordsworth and his fellow writers anywhere in the world, all digitized in full colour. With access to the annotated full manuscripts of such notable works as The Prelude and Michael, or Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Dejection: An Ode this project is unrivalled in its content and scope.
- Victorian Popular CultureThis online resource is divided into 3 sections: Spiritualism, Sensation and Magic; Circuses, Sideshows and Freaks and lastly Musical Hall, Theatre & Popular Entertainment. The collection features book, memoirs, posters, postcards, photographs, cabinet cards, illustrations, handbills, pamphlets, manuscripts, printed ephemera and memorabilia
European Historical Primary Sources
Selection of historical primary sources for newspapers, periodicals and other ephemera from the Asia Geographic Region.
- Electronic enlightenmentProvides interlinked and cross-searchable access to the letters , documents and scholarly notes of correspondents in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries.
- Gallica la bibliothèque numèriqueThe Gallica Digital Library from the Bibliothèque Nationale de France provides free access to thousands of digital books as well as 18th and 19th century journals and newspapers.
- German folklore and popular culture Das KlosterA collection of magical and occult texts, chapbooks, folklore, popular superstition and fairy tales of the German Renaissance compiled by Johann Scheible, between 1845 and 1849. It also provides additional volumes of unique perspectives on Central European culture and tradition. Included are texts essential for the study of German folk traditions, the Reformation, wit and humor, and 19th-century literature."
- L'emerotica digtaleThe Emeroteca Digitale Braidense (Braidense digital newspaper library) is a project promoted by the Biblioteca Nazionale Braidense (National Braidense Library) in Milan. The project aims to digitise various periodicals on Italian history and culture that have been published since the beginning of the 19th century.
National and State Libraries are a rich source of primary source materials, more and more of which are being available online. See the tab Libraries and Archives for examples.
Below is a short selection of freely available primary source collections online.
- American memoryAmerican Memory provides free and open access through the Internet to written and spoken words, sound recordings, still and moving images, prints, maps, and sheet music that document the American experience. It is a digital record of American history and creativity. These materials, from the collections of the Library of Congress and other institutions, chronicle historical events, people, places, and ideas that continue to shape America, serving the public as a resource for education and lifelong learning. Most of this material has been transferred to the Library of Congress Digital Collections
- Avalon Project: documents in law, history and diplomacyThe Avalon Project mounts digital documents relevant to the fields of Law, History, Economics, Politics, Diplomacy and Government. It does not mount only static text but rather adds value to the text by linking to supporting documents expressly referred to in the body of the text.
The Avalon Project will no doubt contain controversial documents. Their inclusion does not indicate endorsement of their contents nor sympathy with the ideology, doctrines, or means employed by their authors. They are included for the sake of completeness and balance and because in many cases they are by the Project team's definition a supporting document. - Documenting DemocracyThe National Archives of Australia presents 110 key documents and images which cover constitutional and political history with and emphasis on federated Australia.
- Eurodocs: online sources for European historyLinks for these open access sources connect to European primary historical documents that are transcribed, reproduced in facsimile, or translated.
In addition you will find video or sound files, maps, photographs or other imagery, databases, and other documentation.
The sources cover a broad range of historical happenings (political, economic, social and cultural). - Witchcraft collectionThe Witchcraft Collection from Cornell University Library is a rich source for students and scholars of the history of superstition and witchcraft persecution in Europe. The collection contains works on canon law, the Inquisition, torture, demonology, trial testimony, and narratives. It focuses on witchcraft not as folklore or anthropology, but as theology and as religious heresy.
- Word on the streetIn the centuries before there were newspapers and 24-hour news channels, the general public had to rely on street literature to find out what was going on. The most popular form of this for nearly 300 years was 'broadsides' .The National Library of Scotland's online collection of nearly 1,800 broadsides lets you see for yourself what 'the word on the street' was in Scotland between 1650 and 1910. Crime, politics, romance, emigration, humour, tragedy, royalty and superstitions - all these and more are here.
National and State Libraries, National Archives and State Records Offices as well as Archives of international organisations are a rich source of primary source materials, more and more of which are being available online. See for example:
- The collection contains a wealth of material to help you research and find your connection with the wartime experiences of the brave men and women who served in Australia's military forces
National Archives of Australia
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The National Archives of Australia can best be described as the memory of our nation – collecting and preserving Australian Government records that reflect our history and identity. The collection traces events and decisions that have shaped the nation and the lives of Australians and can be explore online or in person.
National Library of Australia's e-Resources
- The NLA offers access to a wide variety of Primary sources relating to Australia, Asia and the UK through its website. You will first need to apply for a National Library Card. You are eligible if you live in Australia and supply an Australian residential address.
Trove from the National Library of Australia. Search for:
- Pictures, photos, objects
- Diaries, letters, archives
- Government Gazettes
- and much more
States Records Office of Western Australia
- The core of the State Records Office is the State archives collection. The collection consists of records created by the Colonial and State Governments, as well as Local Government authorities in Western Australia, which are retained permanently by the State Records Office. State archives include files, maps, architectural drawings, documents, microforms, sound recordings and electronic records.
State Library of Western Australia
- Through the WA Heritage Collections you can access Oral histories, Ephemera, Private archives, Photographs and much more.
United Nations Archives and Records
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are responsible for all aspects of UN record-keeping, ranging from measures to ensure that United Nations officials create records in the course of their duties, through the management of records in United Nations offices, to preserving and making records of continuing value accessible as United Nations archives.
Historical Archives of the European Union
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The Historical Archives Service manages the archives of the European Commission and organisations that preceded it. Members of the public can consult minutes of meetings, speeches and other materials in its Brussels reading room.
Evaluating Primary Sources
Primary sources are the foundations of histories. Evaluation of the sources is essential to scholarly research.
Information accessed using the internet needs to be critically evaluated. Consult:
- Evaluating Information and Fake News
- Evaluating Webpages: Techniques to apply and questions to ask from Berkely University.
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