Primary sources provide first-hand accounts of the events, practices, or conditions you are researching. These are documents that were created by the witnesses or first recorders of events at about the time they occurred. Examples of primary resources include diaries, letters, reports, photographs, creative works, financial records, memos, and newspaper articles.
Internet Archive is a non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites, and more. Hathi Trust contains millions of primary source documents. To use Hathi Trust, click “Log In” at the top right corner of the website. A dialog box will appear that contains a dropdown menu; choose “Connecticut College” from this menu, and click “Continue.” You’ll then be prompted to log in with your Connecticut College credentials.
For the humanities, original primary source documents usually are housed in museums, archives, library databases and government websites. Primary sources are often collected and published in books. Two examples are the Library of America editions and the Norton Anthologies.
A primary source in the sciences is usually a report on the results of an experiment by the person or group who performed it. Primary scientific articles contain high-level vocabulary and will present original data, often displayed in tables or charts.
Examples of primary source formats include:
