Contact us:
Welcome to the TC3 Library!
Your visit to the library and this guide will help you get started finding your sources for your Historical Research Project. Whatever you have heard or read that initially caught your interest should be useful as well. Check your assignment to see how many sources you need, and which types.
What is a Primary Source?
Primary sources in historical research are usually defined as first-hand accounts, data or other information that are produced by witnesses to or participants in the events being described. Many primary historical sources are texts, such as letters, diaries, reports, minutes of meetings and so on. There are also book-length first person narratives, for example:
Notice that both of these examples are modern files presented online. They are not original artifacts. When historians have original artifacts to examine, they study not only the words, but the paper, the ink, the typeface, the binding, the comments written in the margins and any other physical aspect of the artifact. For our purposes, the primary source you are using is the text, isolated from the artifact.
Primary sources can also be visual: photographs, maps, works of art, and videos. Of course video is widely available for modern events, such as the 1960 Kennedy-Nixon presidential debates. But students have also found video going back as far as the 1900 hurricane that destroyed Galveston Island.
This guide will help you find primary sources from United States history. For help finding secondary books, look at the final tab, "Finding Books."
As always, if you have any questions about your research please ask a librarian, using the contact information on this page.
Tompkins Cortland Community College Library 170 North St, P.O. Box 139, Dryden, NY 13053
607-844-8222, ext. 4360 | 1-888-567-8211, ext. 4360 (toll free)
Ask a Librarian
