Historical primary
sources
What are primary
sources?
Primary sources
Records that provide firsthand accounts or evidence of historical events or experiences. Primary source material can be published (eg. reports, autobiographies, interviews in contemporary newspapers) or unpublished
(eg. original letters, diaries, papers held within an archive).
Note: You might also find primary source material reproduced within a secondary source, such as a documentary history or a biography.
Secondary sources
Secondhand accounts of historical events or experiences, which analyse and interpret the relevant primary sources. Secondary source material (eg. books, textbooks, journal articles) is usually written at a much later
time after the event.
[Above definitions modelled on those from the Library of Congress’ Historian's Sources web guide.]
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What else do I need to
know about finding primary sources?
Put your topic into its historical context
Before you start your search for primary sources, ask
yourself if you have enough background information (names of
people, places, events, dates etc.) to help you
identify relevant primary sources. If not, then first
you need to check some secondary sources. eg. an historical
encyclopaedia
Remember to mind your language!
When searching for primary or contemporary sources from
earlier eras
think about words that may have been used at that time to describe
particular issues. eg. you may not find the phrase "women's
liberation" mentioned in publications before the 1960s, so
instead you need to look for phrases like "women's rights" or "women's suffrage".
To help make your searching easier use
the Finding
Primary Sources and Archives worksheet
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Searching the
Web
Some libraries, archives and museums have begun digitising
examples of
original texts, documents and pictures in their collections, so you
can view the fulltext and/or images of these on their web sites. For
example:
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Searching the
Library Catalogue
The Library holds a wide range of published documentary histories,
autobiographies
etc. Many older titles can be difficult to find due to their broad
subject headings. Try searching the Library Catalogue using the different types of terms shown below.
Some general tips
Use the * truncation symbol to broaden
your search to find variations of a particular word. For
example: keyword>
australia and coloni* (finds colonial, colonialism, colonies,
colonisation, colonization, etc.)
Think about the broader terms or phrases that describe your
subject area. When you find a book look at the subject
headings used to describe it. These may provide other useful
terms to search. For example: subject> great britain colonies
For Australian primary sources try
searching on both the word australia* and the names
of the individual states and territories. For example: keyword>
new south wales and history
Autobiographies,
diaries and letters
To find autobiographical accounts of events use a Keyword search on the Catalogue and try adding terms such as:
- biograph* (finds biography,
biographies or biographical)
- autobiograph* (finds autobiography,
autobiographies or autobiographical)
- narrative* (finds personal narratives
or narrative account)
For example: keyword> war* and narrative*
If the above keywords do not produce results try more specific
terms such
as:
- diar* (finds diary or diaries)
- letter* (finds letter or letters)
- correspondence
- memoir* (finds memoir or memoirs)
- travel* (finds travel writings or
travelers' account)
- notebook* (finds notebook or notebooks)
For example: keyword> women* and diar*
For more sources of biographical information check the Biographies
guide.
Oral histories
To find transcripts or recordings of oral histories use a Keyword
search
on the Catalogue and try adding terms such as:
- oral histor* (finds oral history or
oral histories)
- interview* (finds interview or
interviews)
- reminisc* (finds reminiscences)
- recollect* (finds recollections)
For example: keyword> war* and interview*
You can also check the Archives' collection of local oral
history recordings.
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Historical
documents (including government reports)
To find books containing official documents, reports, historic
news items
etc., use a Keyword search on the Catalogue and try adding terms such as:
- source* (finds sources, sourcebook,
primary sources)
- document* (finds documents,
documentary history, documentary account)
- record* and histor* (finds historic
records or historical records)
- report* (finds report, royal
commission report)
- speeches
- facsim* (finds facsim., facsimiles,
facsimile reproduction)
- reprint* and histor* (finds historical
reprints)
For example: keyword> australia* and histor* and
document*
Government Publications
To find other sources of government primary source documents check the:
Examples of documentary history books
Titles listed below are held in the
Main Lending Collection (Level 1):
Title |
Call number |
Australia's Women: A Documentary History |
305.420994/22 |
Freedom Bound: Documents on Women in Colonial Australia |
305.420994/44 |
The Struggle for Aboriginal Rights: A Documentary
History |
323.119915/27 |
Documents on Australian Foreign Policy 1937-49
(multivolume set) |
327.94/8 |
Australian Trade Unionism in Documents |
331.880994/42 |
Australian Labor History in Documents (3 volumes) |
335.00994/3 |
Select Documents in Australian Education, 1788-1900 |
370.994/2 |
Documents on the Establishment of Education in New
South Wales, 1789-1880 |
370.9944/12 |
Historic Documents of World War 1 |
940.3/26 |
Historic Documents of World War 11 |
940.3508/1 |
Documents and Readings in the History of Europe Since
1918 |
940.5/19 |
History Of South-East, South And East Asia: Essays And
Documents |
950/22 |
Select Documents in Australian History (Clark) |
994/3 |
Modern Australia in Documents (Crowley) (2 volumes) |
994.04/2 |
A Documentary History of Australia (Crowley)
(multivolume set) |
994.04/2A |
Historical Records of New South Wales (multivolume set) |
994.4/59 |
Historical Records of Victoria (multivolume set) |
994.502/8 |
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Newspapers
The Library has access to many older/historical Australian
newspapers, as well as several overseas newspapers, in a range of
formats (online, microfilm and/or hard copy). For details see
the Historical
Newspapers guide.
Photographs
and other images
To find books with pictorial coverage of historical eras or events use
a Keyword search on
the Catalogue and try adding terms
such as:
- photo** (finds photographs,
photographic)
- pict** (finds pictures, pictorial
works)
- ill** (finds illustrated,
illustrations)
- image* (finds images)
For example: keyword> sydney and histor* and pict**
Examples of online image collections
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