Primary Sources
Primary Sources
Primary sources include historical and legal documents, eyewitness accounts, speeches, memoirs, results of experiments, statistical data, creative writing, unpublished manuscripts and archives, and audio and video recordings, among other documents. Interviews, surveys, and digital communications, including blogs and emails are also primary sources. Reports of direct observation from research, field studies, or experiments are also primary sources.
In the case of organizations, primary sources are documents created by the organization in the course of its operation. These documents can include annual reports, internal memorandums, letters, audio or video recordings, promotional material, and artifacts.
Primary sources help modern researchers interpret events in the context of the period in which it took place. They can also offer insight into the personal, social, religious, and political views of individuals who experienced the event.
For organizations, primary sources can provide a glimpse into the decisions taking place behind the scenes which affected the direction of the organization. They can also illustrate the history of the organization and its development over time.
Secondary Sources
Secondary sources are documents created by people removed in time from an historical event, or who were not present when the event happened. Secondary sources may include reactions and opinions of people far removed from the event being studied. Samples of secondary sources include textbooks, biographies, essays, and literary criticism.
Primary Sources Databases And Related Resources
- eHRAF Archaeology This link opens in a new windowBooks and dissertations of archaeological traditions from around the world. Each file on an archaeological tradition consists of a general summary and full-text sources including books, journal articles, dissertations, and manuscripts.
- eHRAF World Cultures This link opens in a new windowBooks, articles, and dissertations covering all aspects of cultural and social life: religious beliefs, bringing up children, causes and cures of diseases, economic and political behavior. Cultures range from ethnic groups in Africa, Asia, and Oceania, to indigenous and immigrant groups in North and South America.
- Gale Primary Sources This link opens in a new windowNewspapers, books, manuscripts, maps, and photographs. Simultaneously search: 17th-18th Century Burney Collection Newspapers, 19th Century U.S. Newspapers, Sunday Times (London), Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO), Making of the Modern World, Times Literary Supplement, and Times Digital Archive, Financial Times (London).
- Making of the Modern World This link opens in a new windowDigital facsimile images of unique primary sources that track the development of the modern, western world through the lens of trade and wealth. History, political science, social conditions, technology and industry, economics, area studies, etc.
- Making of Modern Law: Foreign Primary Sources, 1600-1970 This link opens in a new windowHistorical legal codes, statutes, regulations, and commentaries on codes from the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and other countries in northern Europe. Crucial sources of historical statutes and regulations for the UK and the Republic of Ireland.
- Proquest Congressional Publications This link opens in a new window
U.S. Congressional materials (hearings, bills, Congressional Record and compiled legislative histories) and Executive Branch documents.
- Slavery, Abolition & Social Justice This link opens in a new windowPrimary source documents on key aspects of the history of slavery. The African Coast, the Middle Passage, the varieties of slave experience, religion, revolts, abolition, and legislation. Case studies from America, the Caribbean, Brazil, and Cuba.
- Visual History Archive (USC Shoah Foundation) This link opens in a new windowStreaming video collection of primary source testimonies of survivors and witnesses of crimes against humanity.
- Archives of Latin American and Caribbean History, Sixteenth to Twentieth Century This link opens in a new windowPrimary source documents about Latin America and the Caribbean covering current issues and events as well as historical events back to the colonial period.
News Databases
- American Indian Newspapers This link opens in a new windowNational periodicals as well as local community news and student publications covering subjects from an Indigenous perspective, including the civil rights era and American Indian Movement (AIM), education, environmentalism, land rights, and cultural representation.
- Ethnic NewsWatch This link opens in a new window
Journals, magazines, and newspapers from ethnic and minority presses. National and regional publications: African American, Caribbean, African, Arab, Middle Eastern, Asian/Pacific Islander, European, Eastern European, Hispanic, Jewish, Native People.
- Factiva This link opens in a new window
Business magazines, trade publications, and newspapers; includes the Wall Street Journal.
- Latin American Newsstream This link opens in a new windowPrincipal newspapers from most Latin American countries and many newspapers from Puerto Rico. Regional news, business, sports and the arts, regional wire services and magazines. In Spanish and/or Portuguese.
- Nexis Uni (formerly LexisNexis Academic) This link opens in a new window
News and newspaper stories, federal and state court cases, US law reviews and journals, company profiles and directories. Company Dossier; data on public figures.
- ProQuest News and Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Direct link to the newspaper section of ProQuest. Includes Alt-Press Watch, Ethnic NewsWatch, GenderWatch, Latin American Newsstand, Canadian Newsstand Complete, ProQuest Newsstand, ProQuest Historical Newspapers. Chicago Tribune, Christian Science Monitor, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Times of London, and The Tennessean.
News Websites
- Real World RadioReal World Radio (RWR) services social movements around the world as part of the communications of Friends of the Earth International. Created in 2003, RWR is based in REDES – Friends of the Earth Uruguay offices in Montevideo. RWR produces information in Spanish and English with a popular environmental approach. It focuses on the struggles of peasant movements, indigenous organizations, women’s groups, unions, environmentalists and fisherfolk, among other actors, in defense of the territories and peoples’ rights.
- The Indigenous WorldAnnual from the International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs." Since 1986, the purpose of The Indigenous World has been to give a comprehensive yearly overview of the developments indigenous peoples have experienced."
- State of the World’s Indigenous Peoples (SOWIP)The Report on the State of the World’s Indigenous Peoples promotes awareness of indigenous peoples’ issues within the United Nations system, with States, academia and the broader public. (4 volumes)
- Amnesty International - Indigenous PeopleAmnesty International publications on indigenous people
- United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII)The United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) is a high- level advisory body to the Economic and Social Council. The Forum was established on 28 July 2000 by resolution 2000/22, with the mandate to deal with indigenous issues related to economic and social development, culture, the environment, education, health and human rights.
- Global Witness - Environmental ActivistsAn annual report of people killed defending their land.
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR / CIDH)
The IACHR is a principal and autonomous organ of the Organization of American States (“OAS”) whose mission is to promote and protect human rights in the American hemisphere. It is composed of seven independent members who serve in a personal capacity. Created by the OAS in 1959, the Commission has its headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Archived data available from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights:
- IACHR - Reports on CasesReports on cases brought before the IACHR.
- IACHR - Schedule of Hearings, 1997 -Audio and video available for sessions from 2007 onward.
- IACHR - Precautionary Measures GrantedThe mechanism for precautionary measures is established in Article 25 of the Rules of Procedure of the IACHR. The Rules of Procedure establish that, in serious and urgent situations, the Commission may, on its own initiative or at the request of a party, “request that a State adopt precautionary measures. Such measures, whether related to a petition or not, shall concern serious and urgent situations presenting a risk of irreparable harm to persons or to subject matter of a pending petition or case before the organs of the inter-American system.” The measures may be of a collective nature to prevent irreparable harm to persons due to their association with an organization, a group, or a community with identified or identifiable members.
Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR / CorteIDH)
The Inter-American Court is one of three regional human rights tribunals, together with the European Court of Human Rights and the African Court of Human and Peoples’ Rights. It is an autonomous legal institution whose objective is to interpret and apply the American Convention. The Inter-American Court exercises a contentious function, in which it resolves contentious cases and supervises judgments; an advisory function; and a function wherein it can order provisional measures.
Archived data available from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights:
- Human Rights Watch - ReportsHuman Rights Watch Reports on various topics including the annual World Report.
- Native American Rights FundSince 1970, the Native American Rights Fund (NARF) has provided legal assistance to Indian tribes, organizations, and individuals nationwide who might otherwise have gone without adequate representation.
