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Using Primary Sources: Introduction

This LibGuide is designed to provide students with a basic introduction to primary sources and to give them some places to begin locating primary source documents.

Examples include:

This recruiting poster from World War II and others like it.

WAVE WWII Poster

Using Primary Sources

book

Since elementary school, you've brainstormed topics, written lists of questions, searched for information, and researched the answers.


Chances are good, though, that most of the research you've done has been through what historians (and upper school teachers) call "secondary sources," sources such as history books, encyclopedias, articles and websites.


This libguide is designed to help you locate and evaluate the documents which form the foundation for those secondary sources, the sources we call "primary sources."

Subject Guide