Skip to Main Content

GU-Q HIST-007: Introduction to Early History: Europe I

Finding Primary Sources in Our Library Catalog

There are several subject headings that are used for primary source materials:

  • Sources
  • Documents
  • Personal narratives
  • Correspondence
  • Diaries
  • Foreign Public Opinion or Public Opinion
  • Caricatures and cartoons
  • Archives

What are Primary Sources?

Primary and Secondary Sources

Primary sources are documents, images or artifacts that provide firsthand testimony or direct evidence concerning an historical topic under research investigation.

Primary sources are original documents created or experienced contemporaneously with the event being researched.

A secondary source is a work that interprets or analyzes an historical event or period after the event has occurred and, generally speaking, with the use of primary sources.

Source: UCI Libraries

Books - with Primary Sources

Primary Sources