What is a primary source?
Each academic discipline creates and uses primary and secondary sources differently; the definition of a primary source only makes sense in the CONTEXT of a specific discipline or field of inquiry. In the humanities and the arts, a primary document might be an original creative work. Or, it might be a part of the historical record written about, or near the time of an event. In the sciences, it might be a publication of original research (such as a journal article)
Here are two definitions that try to capture the elusive nature of primary documents:
A definition from Cornell: Primary sources are the main text or work that you are discussing (e.g. a sonnet by William Shakespeare; an opera by Mozart); actual data or research results (e.g. a scientific article presenting original findings; statistics); or historical documents (e.g. letters, pamphlets, political tracts, manifestoes).
["What is a Source?" Recognizing and Avoiding Plagiarism. Cornell University. College of Arts and Sciences.]
A definition from Yale: "A primary source is firsthand testimony or direct evidence concerning a topic under investigation. The nature and value of a source cannot be determined without reference to the topic and questions it is meant to answer. The same document, or another piece of evidence, may be a primary source in one investigation and secondary in another. The search for primary sources does not, therefore, automatically include or exclude any category of records or documents." [Yale University Library Primary Sources Research Colloquium in History]
Digitized Primary Sources related to Cornell's past
eCommons, Cornell's digital repository:
- Cornell student publications, from 1868 to the present
- Books about Cornell, including memoirs
- Andrew Dickson White presidential papers
- Willard Straight Papers (papers of Willard Straight, not papers about the building or the historical event that took place in 1969)
Also see the History, Primary Sources section of the Library's Databases collection, which includes, for example:
More resources and information on the Cornell University Archives site.
Electronic resources
This is just a sampling of the many, many primary resources available in electronic form. Also see the "primary sources" section of the main library web site.
- Archives of American Art: Terra Foundation Center for Digital CollectionsOver 125 archival collections available in their entirety and more than 12,000 additional individual documents.
- Accessible archivesA site devoted to primary source material in American history. Information archived is from leading historical periodicals and books, and includes eyewitness accounts of historical events, vivid descriptions of daily life, editorial observations, commerce as seen through advertisements, and genealogical records. Databases are encyclopedic in scope and allow full Boolean, group, name, string, and truncated searches. Transcribed individual entries are complete with full bibliographic citations and are organized chronologically. Titles will continue to be added covering important topics and time periods for scholars and students of all academic levels.
- Hathi Trust Digital LibraryAs a digital repository for the nation's great research libraries, HathiTrust brings together the immense collections of partner institutions. It was initially conceived as a collaboration of the thirteen universities of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation, the University of California system, and the University of Virginia to establish a repository for those universities to archive and share their digitized collections, and quickly expanded to include additional partners with fast growing treasure of digitized collections.
Internet Archive (archive.org)"The Internet Archive "was founded [in 1996] to build an 'Internet library,' with the purpose of offering permanent access for researchers, historians, and scholars to historical collections that exist in digital format," such as Internet sites and other cultural digital artifacts (i.e. movies, interviews, images, etc.). Using the Internet Archive's "Wayback Machine," users can look at their own Web site and track how it has evolved. Plug-ins are made available as needed. "Special Wayback Collections" provide a sense of how events such as September 11, 2001, were recorded digitally. This site is appropriate for anyone doing research on the history of the Internet and for those who want to see how the Internet has changed over the years." "Best Free Reference Web Sites 2002." RUSA Quarterly, Fall 2002; reviewed Feb. 19, 2002.
American Memory by Provides information on, and access to, the digitized version of the Library of Congress primary-source collections on American history and culture, including photographs, documents, sound recordings, and motion pictures. Broad topics covered include: agriculture, arts and architecture, history, performing arts, social sciences, etc. Particular collections include: African-American perspectives, Alexander Graham Bell papers, Baseball cards, Civil War photographs, Early motion pictures, and Voices from the Dust Bowl.
- American PeriodicalsAmerican Periodicals includes two full text resources: American Periodicals Series Online (APS Online) and American Periodicals from the Center for Research Libraries. Both contain digitized images of American special interest and general magazines, labor and trade publications, scientific and literary journals, and photographic periodicals, as well as other historically significant titles, from the 19th century through the dawn of the 20th century. Because the database contains digitized images of periodical pages, researchers can see all of the original typography, drawings, graphic elements, and article layouts exactly as they were originally published.
- North American Slave NarrativesDocuments the individual and collective story of the African American struggle for freedom and human rights in the eighteenth, nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. When completed, it will include all the narratives of fugitive and former slaves published in broadsides, pamphlets, or book form in English up to 1920 and many of the biographies of fugitive and former slaves published in English before 1920.
- Early Encounters in North America: Peoples, Cultures & the Environment1534 to 1850. The collection focuses on personal accounts and provides unique perspectives from all of the protagonists, including traders, slaves, missionaries, explorers, soldiers, native peoples, and officials, both men and women.
- Early English Books Online (EEBO)From the first book printed in English by William Caxton, through the age of Spenser and Shakespeare and the tumult of the English Civil War, Early English Books Online (EEBO) contains over 125,000 titles listed in Pollard & Redgrave's Short-Title Catalogue (1475 - 1640), Wing's Short-Title Catalogue (1641-1700), and the Thomason Tracts (1640-1661).
Eighteenth-Century Collections OnlineAlso includes many pamphlets, broadsides, monographs, and more. Many treat the subject of art, some were printed to accompany art sales, and all were published in 18th-century UK & the Americas.- HarpWeek: the Civil War era (1857-1865)12 computer discs. Images from Harper’s Weekly, 1857-1865, with index. Olin Library Reference (Non-Circulating) Disk E461 .H29 1997 (12 discs), shelved next to the Electronic Text Center, by the first floor printer room behind the reference desk in Olin Library. Use the ETC computer to access.
HarpWeek is also available online (1857-1912; contains browsable full text of Harper's Weekly, but not necessarily all images). Entire original Harper's Weekly available in the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections in Kroch Library. Call 255-3530 to request in advance with specific volume and issue number. Harper's Monthly available via the Making of America collection, above.
- JSTORJSTOR is a fully-searchable database containing the back issues of several hundred scholarly journals in the humanities, social sciences, mathematics, music, ecology and botany, business, and other fields. It includes the following collections: Arts & sciences I, II and III, General science, Ecology and botany, Business, Language and literature.
- North American women's letters and diaries : Colonial to 1950Full-text database of letters and diaries of women who lived in North America before 1950. Browsing and searching of both the bibliographic and full-text elements provided by PhiloLogic software.
- Samuel J. May Anti-Slavery CollectionSearchable digital collection of pamphlets and leaflets donated to Cornell University by abolitionist and humanitarian Samuel J. May. Covers the anti-slavery struggle at local, regional, national, and international levels during the ante-bellum and Civil War periods in America. Includes essays, sermons, speeches, court proceedings and decisions, etc. Most pamphlets are anti-slavery, but some are pro-slavery. Topics include arguments for and against slavery; the relation of slavery to Biblical teachings; history of slavery around the world, and especially in the United States; the question of whether new American states should be required to give up slavery before joining the Union; the status of fugitive slaves, and whether states harboring them should be required to return them to their former owners; the slave trade and its economic supports, such as the sugar trade; and the organization, principles, and functioning of anti-slavery societies. Activities of churches and women's societies in opposing slavery are heavily documented. Contributors include Gerrit Smith, William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass, Lydia Maria Child, Harriet Beecher Stowe, the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, the American Anti-Slavery Society, the New England Anti-Slavery Convention, the Edinburgh Ladies' Emancipation Society, and many others.
- Everyday Life & Women in AmericaThis digital collection provides access to rare primary source material on American social, cultural, and popular history from the Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History, Duke University and The New York Public Library. It comprises thousands of fully searchable images (alongside transcriptions) of monographs, pamphlets, periodicals and broadsides addressing 19th and early 20th century political, social and gender issues, religion, race, education, employment, marriage, sexuality, home and family life, health, and pastimes, emphasizing conduct of life and domestic management literature, the daily lives of women and men, and contrasts in regional, urban and rural cultures.
- World's fairs and expositions : visions of tomorrowIncludes primary source documents from exhibits between 1840 to 1940. The collection includes photos, newspapers, periodicals, books, general histories, exhibition catalogs, official histories, commemorative accounts, exposition publications, visitors' guides, lectures, technical reports, and promotional publications.
Example
Portrait of Hu Shih (Cornell Class of 1914) while a student at Cornell. Hu Shih, a prominent cultural and academic leader in China, is one of Cornell's great and esteemed alumni. Find out more about Hu Shih and the archival sources Cornell holds about his life and achievements here.
Peking University Library. The Diary and Letters of Dr. Hu Shih. Singapore: Cengage Learning Asia, 2010.
Finding primary sources
These words and phrases are standard terms (metadata) used in many databases and library catalogs to signal primary sources.
- charters
- correspondence
- diaries
- early works
- interviews
- manuscripts
- oratory
- pamphlets
- personal narratives
- sources
- speeches
- letters
- documents
So you might add one of these terms to your search. Thus: Cornell University -- faculty and add "Personal narratives."
You are combining PLACE and TIME and SUBJECT and then TYPE OF SOURCE.