HY 136: United States History since 1877: Primary Sources

Primary sources are direct examples of your research topic in real life. Primary sources are not secondary sources. Secondary sources are other people writing or talking about the same topic in a different way.

Primary sources are: 

• Directly limited by your topic
• Examples of your research topic in real life
• Proof of your claims

What counts as a primary source depends on your topic and topic scope. Please visit the Primary Sources LibGuide for more information.

If you were writing about how boxing champions were trained in the 1920s, your primary sources should all be direct proof of how 1920s boxing champions were trained. Some primary sources could be:

• a newspaper article written in 1920 by a direct observer of a boxing match
• 1920s boxing gloves
• a journal entry written in 1921 by a boxing trainer
• a source book of letters and essays written by 1920s boxers

For this topic, a book written in 1993 about the history of boxing would not be a primary source.