Primary and Secondary Sources

Historians use different kinds of sources to study the past. Sources are books, documents, pictures, or other materials that provide evidence about the past.

Primary sources are usually firsthand accounts and are usually created at the time that an event takes place.

Secondary sources are usually secondhand accounts, are usually created later in time, and are based on a variety of primary sources.

Not all sources are primary or secondary sources. For example, if a source is not useful in researching a topic, it is neither a primary nor secondary source for that topic. To sort a source into one group or another, keep in mind the goal of the historian.

Imagine that you are a historian interested in the music of the American civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. You find the source described below.

During the civil rights movement, activists in the civil rights movement sang the songs "We Shall Overcome" and "We Shall Not Be Moved." An original sound recording includes participants in the civil rights movement singing these songs.

In this case, the recording is a primary source because it features music sung by civil rights movement activists.

Imagine that you are a historian studying the history of chocolate. You find the source described below.

A book from 1996 describes how the Maya people first used chocolate thousands of years ago.

In this case, the book is a secondary source because it was written thousands of years after Maya first used chocolate.