Historical Studies 3301
Professor Gerald Soliday
March 4, 2004
PRIMARY SOURCES
Primary sources are the original, first-hand accounts of a subject or event. Primary
sources may include letters, diaries, manuscripts, autobiographies, eyewitness accounts,
interviews, and reports of governmental investigations. Remember, however, that primary
sources are not always printed materials. They may be photographs, paintings, films, and two- or
three-dimensional objects from the period (such as tapestries, quilts, sculpture, pottery, etc.), as
well as songs or ballads. To find primary sources you may have to try several approaches, using
books, bibliographies, or periodicals.
FINDING PRIMARY SOURCES IN BOOKS (USING THE UTD CATALOG)
To find primary sources on your topic in the catalog, search by keyword and add some of these
terms to your search: diaries, memoirs, letters, correspondence, speeches, manuscripts, personal
narratives, portraits, pictures, illustrations, etc. Example: keywords -- england and (elizabethan or
tudor) and (diaries or correspondence or letters)
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FINDING PRIMARY SOURCES IN BIBLIOGRAPHIES
A bibliography is a list of works about a particular topic. A bibliography may list books,
periodicals, or newspaper articles, government documents, etc. Bibliographies often appear at the end of
secondary sources such as periodical articles, books, dissertations, or encyclopedia articles. Authors of
these secondary sources often use primary sources to support their arguments. Using UTD’s catalog and
indexes, locate books or articles on a particular topic. Then read their bibliographies, footnotes, or end
notes to identify primary sources. Hint: the catalog records will often indicate if the library book
contains a bibliography. A good example can be found in the example above. There is a bibliography on
pages 247 through 250 of Lady Margaret Hoby’s diary.
A bibliography can also be an entire book that focuses on a particular subject. This bibliography
might list both primary and secondary sources such as articles, manuscripts, documents, art objects,
photographs, and books. Using Bibliography of British History: The Tudor Period, 1485-1603 (REF DA34
.B523 1978) p. 300, you would find the following references to primary sources. Use the UTD catalog to
see if this library owns those works (usually in microfilm or on the Early English Books Online database),
or use the OCLC WorldCat database to see if any area libraries own the book. (WorldCat is a database
that contains the catalog records of libraries worldwide, including the Library of Congress, the British
Library, the Bibliothèque Nationale, etc. It is the most important source for finding out which library
owns a particular book.)
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CERTAIN ADUERTISEMENTS OUT OF IRELAND, concerning the losses of the Spanish nauie....Lond. 1588; Harl.
Misc. (281), ii, 47-59.
Consists mainly of examinations of Spanish prisoners. A French version and three different Dutch versions were
printed in 1588.
DELONEY, THOMAS. Three ballads on the Armada fight. Lond. 1588; repr. in Eng. Garner
(279), vii, 39-56.
These ballads were published, each one separately, in 1588. For their titles, cf. S.T.C. (35), nos. 6557-8, 6565.
DOCUMENTS ILLUSTRATING THE HISTORY OF THE SPANISH ARMADA. By G.P.B
Naish. The Naval Misc. iv (1952), Navy Rec. Soc. 1-84.
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FINDING PRIMARY SOURCES IN PERIODICALS
Primary sources can be found in periodicals as well as in books. Explain your research topic to the
librarians at the Reference Desk. They will suggest appropriate indexes so that you can find articles on your
topic. Locate the periodical, then browse through the article to find primary sources. Pay attention to the
endnotes, footnotes, bibliography, supplementary reading lists, etc. Example:
When you have located primary sources in periodicals, check the UTD catalog to see if we own that
primary source. Also check the Early English Books Online database (see next page). ALSO ASK A
LIBRARIAN. We have lots of experience tracking these primary sources and we might have other ways
of finding them that you aren’t aware of.
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Early English Books (Microfilm) and Early English Books Online
Early English Books (1475-1640)---a microfilm collection which contains many (but not all) of the books
described in: A. W. Pollard and G. R. Redgrave's A Short Title Catalogue of Books Printed in England,
Scotland, & Ireland...1475-1640. REF AS2 .P77 1976. (Often referred to as "Pollard and Redgrave” or
"STC.") Most of these books are listed in the library catalog, complete with reel number---prox 25,000
records.
Many (but not all) of the Early English Books on microfilm are now available online from the
library’s electronic databases. “From the first book published in English through the age of Spenser
and Shakespeare, this incomparable collection contains over 96,000 titles listed in Pollard &
Redgrave's Short Title Catalogue (1475 - 1640) and Wing's Short-Title Catalogue (1641-1700) and
their revised editions. Libraries possessing this collection find they are able to fulfill the most
exhaustive research requirements of graduate scholars in the areas of English literature, history,
philosophy, linguistics, and the fine arts.”
Author: Deloney, Thomas, 1543?-1600. Title: A new ballet of the straunge and most cruell whippes which the
Spanyards had prepared to whippe and torment English men and women Date: 1588