1. Primary and secondary sources
USS SHAW exploding during the Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor.” December 7, 1941
Primary and secondary sources
Created December 2013

2. Overview
You will …
Identify and differentiate between primary and secondary sources
Categorize examples of primary and secondary sources
Define, in your own words, the terms “primary” and “secondary” sources
LEARN how to identify and differentiate between primary and secondary sources.
CATEGORIZE examples of primary and secondary sources into their respective groups.
DEFINE, in your own words, the terms “primary” and “secondary” sources

3. Primary sources
Original documents, objects, accounts or records written or produced in the time period of the actual event.
Firsthand (or eyewitness) accounts.
Videoclip of Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” march. August 28, 1963
Bargain Day, 14th Street, New York. 20 April 1905 (film)

4. Primary source
Enables you to get as close as possible to what actually happened during an historical event or time period.
Gives you an idea about what people saw, experienced or were thinking at the time of a particular event.
Immigrants just arrived from Foreign Countries

5. Primary Source
Personal records, diaries, journals, autobiographies, photographs
Anne Frank was a teenager during World War II. She kept a diary or journal the years before she died in a concentration camp. Her diary was later published as the “Diary of Anne Frank.” This is a primary source.
Autobiography of
Benjamin Franklin

6. Primary Source: Visual materials
Paintings
Drawings
Sculpture
Film/video
Painting: Mona Lisa
Created by
Leonardo da Vinci,
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. chats with Vice-President Hubert Humphrey

7. Primary Source Songs and poems Artifacts (tools, ornaments, objects
Statistics
Statistics of the U.S. from Census of 1840
Song, Philadelphia c. 1864

8. Primary Source Published first hand accounts or stories
Radio broadcasts
Video clips of actual events
An interview
Example: 2008 Presidential candidate Senator John McCain talked about his “own” experiences as a Vietnam prisoner of war. It is a primary source because he was there and experienced the events first hand.
Example: Television stations found footage of Senator McCain at the time that he was released. Those videos are primary sources because it was filmed when it occurred.
Interview (oral history) with 442 soldier

9. Primary Source Speeches Example: Inauguration speeches
George Washington’s first inaugural speech,
April 30, 1709

10. Primary Source Political cartoons Title: The tread mill
Creator: Macauley, C.R., (Charles Raymond), , artist
Date Created/Published: [ca. 1913?]
Summary: Cartoon marked New York World shows children turning a wheel labeled “Profits on child labor.”
Political cartoon on child labor, dated 1913?

11. Primary Source Historical documents Examples:
Declaration of Independence
Bill of Rights
U.S. Constitution
Government records
Art
Bill of Rights
Declaration of Independence

12. Primary Source: Letters (ex. Civil War)
Example: Soldiers during wars wrote to their families about war events they experienced. Those letters are considered primary sources.

13. Why primary sources?
Since primary sources represent only one person’s point of view, and may contain a person’s bias (prejudice) toward an event, they:
Allow you to make your own interpretation of the information/past
Allow you to analyze and compare different people’s accounts of the same event

14. Secondary/Tertiary sources
Information in encyclopedias and textbooks that were written by someone who had to study or research the event first are secondary or tertiary sources
Second-hand information- accounts or interpretations of events created by someone without firsthand experience
Sometimes expresses an opinion or an argument about a past event
Last modified 23 August 2013

15. Secondary Source Think about it like this…
If I tell you something, I am the primary source. If you tell someone else what I told you, you are the secondary source.

16. Secondary Source
Charts, graphs, or images created AFTER the time period
Book summarizing the
September 11, 2001 attack
on the World Trade Center

17. Secondary Sources Think about it…
Although they can be useful and reliable, they cannot reflect what people who lived at the time thought or felt about the event.
They can represent a more fair account of the event because they can include more than one point of view, or may include information that was unavailable at the time of the event.

18. Primary or Secondary Source?
Newspaper and magazine articles can be a primary or secondary source…
If the article was written at the time something happened (an eyewitness or firsthand account), then it is a primary source.
However, if a news reporter in 2009 wrote about George Washington’s inauguration in 1789, that would be a secondary source.
Example: Articles written about Barack Obama’s inauguration in 2009 by people who witnessed the event first hand are primary sources.
(Primary source)

19. Primary or secondary?
A map might be a primary or secondary source…for example:
A map created in 1860’s is a primary source for that time;
A map created today, showing distribution of slaves in the Southern States is a secondary source.
(Primary source)
Title: map showing distribution of slaves
in the Southern States
Created/Published: A. von Steinwehr,186-?

20. Stay tuned…to be continued in class…
Now you try it!
Primary source checklist:
Created at the time of an event or very soon after?
Created by someone who saw or heard the event?
One-of-a kind, or rare?
Stay tuned…to be continued in class…

21. Primary or secondary?
From FUTURECASTS online magazine, 4/1/01

22. Primary or secondary?
Barack Obama’s Aug. 28, 2009 presidential acceptance speech

23. Primary or secondary?
Diary of a Wimpy Kid book series

24. Primary or secondary?
A biography by Michael Sandler

25. Primary or secondary?
Steven Spielberg’s movie
on Abraham Lincoln

26. Primary or secondary?
I was watching ESPN and one of the reporters said he had heard good reviews about a new sports movie. When he talks about the movie, what is he?
My friends and I found an old wedding dress in our attic. My father said it belonged to my grandmother. What is the dress?

27. Primary or secondary?
I like to read People magazine. I really like the articles written by others about Hollywood actors. When I read these stories, what am I reading?
My mom has CDs of my grandparents telling stories about when they were kids. We love to listen to these at family gatherings. What are we listening to?

28. Primary or secondary?
When I am doing homework for U.S. Government and I read the commentaries by Supreme Court Justices on landmark cases, what am I reading?
When I was at summer camp a few years ago, I found an arrowhead; I did research and found out it has been made by the Cherokee Indians. What is my arrowhead?

29. Primary or secondary? Portrait of James Madison.
Phlada. (Philadelphia): W.H. Morgan,
[between 1809 and 1817]
Prints & Photographs Division.
Reproduction Number:
LC-USZ (b&w film copy neg.)
Portrait of James Madison, 1800’s

30. Primary source citations
Anderson, I.P. Clara Day. Johnson Song, Publisher c Song sheet. American Song Sheet Collection Lib. Of Cong. Web. 13 Sept < collId=amss&fileName=as1/as102110/amsspage.db&recNum= >. Bargain Day, 14th Street, New York. Photog. Frederick S. Armitage. American Mutoscope and Biograph Company The Life of a City: Early Films of New York, Apr American Memory. Lib. of Congress. 12 Sept < < m2a25469)).

31. Primary source citations
Da Vinci, Leonardo. Mona Lisa Oil on wood. Louvre, Paris.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. chats with Vice-President Hubert Humphrey as they shake hands King, Martin Luther,--Jr., Public appearances. Lib. of Congress. 12 Sept < >.
Franklin, Benjamin. The autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. New York: Dover Publications, 1996.

32. Primary source citations
Immigrants just arrived from Foreign Countries--Immigrant Building, Ellis Island, New York Harbor. c1904. Immigrants to the United States, Library of Congress. 12 Sept <
Macauley, Charles Raymond. “The Tread Mill.” Cartoon Lib. of Cong. Web. 24 Sept < >.
Scott, Newton. “Civil War Letter.” 11 Aug Letter. Letters from an Iowa Soldier in the Civil War. Web. 24 Sept < >.

33. Primary source citations
United States Congress. The Bill of Rights National Archives and Records Administration. Web. 24 Sept < >.
U.S. Census Bureau Statistics of the United States: Lib. Of Cong. Web. 13 Sept < bin/ampage?collId=rbpe&fileName=rbpe20/rbpe207/ a/rbpe a.db&recNum=1&itemLink=D?rbpebib: b,lhbcbbib,cic,ngp,klpmap,mymhiwebib,fawbib,psbib,lhbtnbib ,detr,lhbumbib,upboverbib&linkText=0 >.
U.S. Constitution.

34. Primary source citations
U.S. Declaration of Independence.
USS SHAW exploding during the Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor. 7 Dec World War II Photos. National Archives and Records Administration. < pages/larger- image.html?i=/research/military/ww2/photos/images/thum bnails/ww l.jpg&c=/research/military/ww2/photos/images/thumbnails /ww2-126.caption.html>.
Washington, George. “First inaugural speech.” 30 April 1709.