Primary sources are first-hand accounts of an event or time in history that has yet to be interpreted by another person.
Examples of primary sources include:
- diaries, journals, letters, interviews, speeches, memos, manuscripts and other first-person accounts
- memoirs and autobiographies
- official records such as government publications, census data, court reports, police records
- minutes, reports, correspondence of an organization or agency
- newspaper and magazine articles written during the time of the event
- photographs, paintings, film and television programs, audio recordings which document an event
- research such as opinion polls which document attitudes and thought during the time of an event
- artifacts such as objects, tools, clothing, etc. of the time period or events
