Skip to Main Content
Banner Image

HIS272H5: US History, 1877 to the Present

A guide to support students completing Winter term assignments in HIS 272 on the UTM campus.

Finding Primary Sources in the Humanities

A primary source is a source that was created during the time period that we want to analyze or at a subsequent time by individuals who witnessed, participated in, and/or reflected on the events of that time.

Using primary sources, we analyze why the specific information was created and investigate how the information could uncover the event/history/culture and/or social norms. There are four common ways to find primary sources:

1) Check appendices, notes, and bibliographies

Secondary sources provide analysis, commentary, or criticism on primary sources. There is a rich list of primary sources under appendices, footnotes/endnotes, and bibliographies commonly in scholarly books. 

2) Find primary sources using the UTL catalogue

When you search, you might include keywords/subjects, such as letter, correspondence, diaries, interviews, and pamphlets.
Check How to Find Primary Sources in the UTL LibrarySearch below .

3) Use databases that the University of Toronto Libraries offer

4) Use reliable online resources

For example,

5) Use images, maps, and songs, as primary sources

Subject (Headings) for Primary Sources

Subjects (or Subject headings) are used to identify items on a specific topic and to collocate items on the same topic. The following Subjects can be used to find primary sources:

Subject Headings

What Does This Include?

Used with...

Example(s)

Autographs

Collections or discussions of the person's autograph or handwriting (H 1110)

Names of people
Classes of persons

Francis, of Assisi, Saint, 1182-1226 -- Autogaphs

Biography

Biographical works focus on the personal aspects of the individual's life, critical works on the individual's professional, intellectual, or artistic achievements (H 1330)

 

Pakistan -- Biography

Crusades -- Biography

Correspondence

Official correspondence or correspondence involving corporate entities, including heads of state acting in their official capacity, is not covered (H 1480)

Names of people
Classes of persons
Ethnic groups

19th century -- Correspondence

Description and Travel

Names of both cities and larger places for descriptive works and accounts of travel, including the history of travel, in those places (H 1530)

Places

Europe, Eastern -- Description and travel -- Early works to 1800

Diaries

Registers or records of personal experiences, observations, thoughts, or feelings, kept daily or at frequent intervals (H 1538)

Names of persons
Classes of people

Scott, F. R (Francis Reginald), 1899-1985 -- Diaries

Gay men -- Sexual behavior -- United States -- 21st century -- Diaries

Early Works to 1800

Early printed works and manuscripts, editions, and post-1800 adaptations and reassembled works (H 1576)

 

Italy -- Early works to 1800

Sources

Collections of writings, such as legal documents, letters, diaries, family papers, etc., compiled for use by students, scholars, etc., in their research on the history of those topics, and for works discussing source materials of all types.
It is also used under names of persons for works discussing the individual’s sources of ideas or inspiration for his endeavors or creative works and for collections of those source materials. (H 2080).

Countries
Names of people
Classes of persons
Ethnic groups
Topical headings not inherently historical

Reformation -- Sources

Canada -- History -- Sources

Interviews

Transcripts of what was said during the course of interviews or conversations with one or more persons on one or more occasions, and works about those interviews (H 1678)

Names of people
Classes of people

Artists -- Soviet Union -- Interviews

Authors-20th century-Interviews

Manuscripts

Use for works discussing writings made by hand, typewriter, etc. by or about the person

 

Manuscripts, Medieval

Maps

Individual maps or collections of maps

Countries, etc.
Corporate bodies
Topical headings

Europe -- Maps

Maps -- 19th century

Notebooks, sketchbooks, etc

Collections or discussions of the person's notebooks or sketchbooks (H 1110)

Names of people

Leonardo, da Vinci, 1452-1519 -- Notebooks, sketchbooks, etc

Pamphlets

Use under 16th, 17th, and 18th century period subdivisions of European and American history and under individual wars, for short, separately published, usually polemical, essays or treatises regarding controversial issues of contemporary interest, especially political or religious matters (H 1095)

 

20th century -- Pamphlets

Personal Narratives

Names of events and wars for collective or individual eyewitness reports and/or autobiographical accounts of these events and wars (H 1928)

 

Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Hungary -- Personal narratives

Algeria -- History -- Revolution, 1954-1962 -- Personal narratives, Algerian

Pictorial Works

Works consisting primarily of pictures (H 1935)

 

Ruined buildings -- Pictorial works