What are Primary Sources?

These are sources which are first -hand accounts or evidence. They are original materials, often used as the starting point for further studies and research.  First-hand sources are the best way to get close to a person, period or event.

Sometimes published material will be considered a primary source if it was written at the time and by someone with first-hand experience of the event.

It is important to bear in mind that whilst contemporaneous, first-hand accounts are likely to be written from one person’s perspective. They need not necessarily be just written: primary sources can include pictures and artefacts. In the world of science, primary sources include original thinking, reports on new information or publications detailing a discovery.

What are Secondary Sources?

These are sources which discuss, comment on, describe, analyse or interpret primary sources. They are often written after the event or the time it happened. As a result, they are able to contextualise the event and see it from a different perspective. As time moves on, they may be part of an advancing body of work interpreting events or primary sources. They may comprise written and non-written materials.