Primary Sources World History

Welcome! This guide is for students wanting to find and understand primary sources for college level research papers and projects. The Green tabs above provide tips for finding the best primary sources for the time period and topic you're studying.

What's a Primary Source?

Primary Sources provide first-hand testimony or direct evidence on a subject. These are sources created by someone who experienced the period or event first hand. 

Because they may be eye-witness accounts, many primary sources are created at the time the event occurred, but recorded memories -- such as autobiographies, memoirs, and oral histories -- are also considered primary sources. 

Primary sources come in many formats! To better understand the range and variety, you'll want to see: 

What are Primary Sources? (Yale University)

Below are related research guides from this Library:

• News and Journalism 
• Primary Sources for African American History