Primary+Sources

What are Primary Sources?
Primary Sources are documents, letters, manuscripts, official records, speeches, video and audio recordings, films or photographs that were created during the during the specific time under study.

The Importance of Primary Sources
Primary sources are often times the only record of what occurred from the past. Human memory can provide us with first hand testimony, but the actual artifacts provide us with an opportunity to carefully examine those materials in an unbiased manner. They provide us with a picture and an understanding of what really happened during those times.

How to Use Primary Sources
The first step, of course, is finding the primary sources. Think about any individual, group or organization that would have had a connection with your topic. Often times these people or institutions have created archival collections and have digitized them for access by the public. Libraries and their websites are excellent starting points. Once located, it is important to validate its authenticity, who created the document,and what was the creator's purpose.

Questions to ask: 1. What is the material? 2. Who created this primary source? 3. When was it created? 4. Why was it created? 5. What message does the source convey? 6. Are there other primary source materials related to it? 7. Why is the source important?

To take a step-by-step walk through how to use primary sources visit: [|The Primary Source Village]

Other issues of working with Primary Sources can be explored at the following Library of Congress site: [|Working with Primary Sources]

Worksheets for Analyzing Primary Sources
[|Teacher's Guide and Analysis Tool]

Analyzing Photographs
[|Photograph Analysis Worksheet] [|Viewing Photographs] [|Photo Analysis Guide] [|Fake or Foto Challenge]

Classroom Activity for Analyzing Photographs
Give each student a photograph. Put students in pairs and have them describe to their partner what they see in the picture.

Learning About an Era
Primary Source materials can help us to get a feel for what an era in our history was all about. Advertisements providean interesting view of an era by showing the products that were for sale, their cost, and their value to consumers. [|Ad*Access] takes a look at over 7,000 ads that were printed in newspapers and magazines between 1911 and 1955. This collection is available to the public through Duke University. It focuses on the following five major subject area: Television; Radio; Transportation; Beauty and Hygiene, and Word War II.

The [|Duke University Digital Collections] offers images from an earlier time in our country's history. The [|Emergence of Advertising in America] website contains over 9,000 images about the history of advertising in America.

The images and texts on this web site have been made available for use in research, teaching, and private study. For these purposes you may reproduce (print, make photocopies, or download) materials from this web site without prior permission, on the condition that you provide proper attribution of the source in all copies.
 * Duke University Copyright Policy for the Ad& Access and Emergence of Advertising in America Databases:**

Using Primary Sources in Instruction Examples:
Teaching the Civil War Resources [|Teaching With Documents:] [|Using Primary Sources: Letters from the Presidents]

Visual Literacy Activities/Lessons
[|Picture This - Visual Literacy Activities] [|Smithsonian: Resources for Teaching American History] [|Visual Memory Test] [|The Corporate ABC Quiz] [|Fake or Fot Challenge]

Driving and Reading
[|America's Ten Most Confusing traffic Signs]

Primary Source Images
[|Public Domain Images] [|The National Archives Digital Vaults] [|World Digital Library] [|Library of Congress - Digital Collection] [|Time & Life Pictures] [|Heinz History Center Photography Collection] [|Smithsonian: Resources for Teaching American History] [|Ad*Access] [|Emergence of Advertising in America] [|DocsTeach Resources] [|The National Archives Teacher Resources] [|Duke University Digital Collections] [|NASA Images] [|Picturing America]