Primary+Documents

Primary sources/documents are the backbone of our understanding of history, snapshots of the past that have been left behind by those that experienced it. In the same way you leave clues about the world around you with every text, photo, status update, so too have people in our past left the same clues. With so many types of artifacts, we group them into the following categories: > Books written and published are polished works that have been carefully created and produced by many individuals. For this reason they are trusted to contain foundational evidence about society. They must be evaluated for their purpose carefully. Other printed texts have come to include magazines and newspapers as well. Again, these have all been created with care and precision.
 * Sourcing Primary Documents** toc
 * ===[|Books and Other Printed Texts]===

> A manuscript is a pre-published version of a book, essay, or story. Writers send manuscripts to publishers for editing and final approval. If the manuscript is deemed worthy of publication, the publisher will pay the author for rights to it and print it as he wishes.
 * ===[|Manuscripts]===

> A very obvious type of primary source, maps tell us about the geography at a given moment in time. Maps may include data such as census data, or voting results data.
 * ===[|Maps]===

> Sometimes called "moving images" motion pictures emerged as a way of capturing life in motion right at the turn of the 20th century. Motion pictures were unable to capture sound simultaneously until the 1920s, due to the emerging audio recording technology that was coming at the same time. So be leery of any "film" claiming to be from before the 1920s with voices and sound. The movie industry exploded during the 1920s, with hundreds of feature films being produced annually. As recording cameras became increasingly mobile, the usefulness of capturing history through video gives students of history a first-hand account of the past. Now everyone has one...
 * ===[|Motion Pictures]===

> Often unwritten, oral histories are legendary retellings of family or tribal events that have been passed down through generations. These may seem unreliable but further investigation is that tribes relied upon the oral histories and therefore revered, respected, and carefully selected the individual who would be responsible for maintaining those memories and stories. Family histories are similar. First-hand accounts of events within one's life will always contain a bias that is unique to the individual, but nothing discounts the value of an oral history as long as it is used with it's bias in mind.
 * ===[|Oral Histories]===

> When Matthew Brady travelled the countryside following the Union and Confederate Armies, photographing the Civil War, no one had really understood the benefit of a camera. His images capture the war, and not just the war, but the physical, emotional, civil, and social toll of the war. Photographs became an essential tool for recording still life, capturing an instant. While video would seem to be better, there is something about a print image that video cannot do.
 * ===[|Photographs and Prints]===

> Through humor, we gain perspective and appreciate opposing viewpoints in a venue that does not require emotionally charged reactions. A persuasive essay in a compact drawing, cartoon artists bring a serious issue to the forefront of thought and expose the realities of situations. Political or editorial cartoons have an obvious bias and often clear message, and that is why we, as students of history, like them.
 * ===[|Political Cartoons]===

> Music is the voice of a society. Before the music industry emerged, songs were part of the oral histories and folk histories of communities. Songs that were sung were old remnants of life when things were harder, or easier, or restrictive, or freer, etc... On a larger scale, popular music was distributed through sheet music. This music not only reflects preferences in a given era, but also is reflective of societal issues, norms, relationships, events, and needs.
 * ===[|Sheet Music and Song Sheets]===

> While sound recordings are also a relatively new media for primary archiving, they are definitely to be used with caution. A sound recording of a certain event (presidential speech) captures the oratory of the nation's leadership, a recording of an interview contains bias and judgement that may not be easy to discern. Recordings can be modified to bend and twist accurate events.
 * ===[|Sound Recordings]===