The Historian’s Toolbox
Discovery, Analysis, Interpretation, Communication
What Do Historians Do?
Obviously historiography [writing history] cannot be a science. It can only be an
industry, an art, and a philosophy – an industry by ferreting out the facts, an art by
establishing a meaningful order in the chaos of materials, a philosophy by seeking
perspective and enlightenment." - Will and Ariel Durant, The Lessons of History (1968)
The Building Blocks of History : Primary Sources
Primary sources are actual records that have survived from the past. They are pieces of
information created from direct experience that help us to understand history: letters,
diaries, public documents, photographs, remnants of clothing, furniture, tools, coins, and
other artifacts.
Primary sources are created by people who witnessed or participated in an event and
recorded it in some way.
Using Primary Sources
The photograph on the left shows Laura May Wilson on her wedding day. Through
using documents such as a Certificate of Marriage (below the picture), we can learn more
about this event. For example, she was married on March 14, 1917, in Coon Rapids,
Carroll County, Iowa. From this document, we also know that her two sisters Hazel and
Rhoda witnessed the marriage.
Tools for “Doing History” Well
Locating Primary Sources
Looking for primary documents is like a treasure hunt. Historians often have to go to
many places to collect materials including libraries, museums, government agencies, and
historical societies. They even may create their own documents by interviewing relevant
people. (Audio and video tapes are primary sources too.)
Broadening the Search
Today, many historians use digital reproductions of original materials. A digital
reproduction is an electronic version of an artifact such as a diary, letter, newspaper
clipping, object, or original photograph. Digital reproduction allows the original to be
stored, protected, and preserved, while making the resource widely available for study.
More Examples of Digital Reproductions
The article on the right is a digital reproduction of a newspaper article. The article notes
that Mrs. Laura Wilson Anderson had her poems published in The Poetic Voice of
America. The original article was scanned.
The pictures show the "Always Ready Class" at the Star Methodist Church where Clara
May Wilson taught. A number of scans were completed. First, the photo is displayed in a
black photo album. The back of the photo was also scanned. The close-ups are of Clara
and Glenn Bolger, Mrs. Anderson’s niece and nephew.
The Limitations of Digital Reproductions
Reading
a scanned copy of the marriage certificate yields similar information to the
original. But it doesn't allow us to see the reverse side of the sheet unless that side is
scanned too. So the exploration may be incomplete when examining digital
reproductions. Some historians also miss the smell and touch of an original item.
Transcriptions
Many historical primary resources are transcribed into a digital form to make them
easier to access and search. This is a diary entry made by Eileen Kinnick on January 1,
1936, when she was 17 years old. A scanned digital reproduction of the diary page is at
the top. The transcription is below it.
Errors in Transcription
Examine this example from Ruth West's 1920 diary and see if you can identify issues or
concerns with transcription. Errors in transcriptions are common.
Examining Primary Sources
Historians go to primary sources in search of evidence to answer questions about what
happened in the past and why. When working with primary sources, answering a series of
basic questions can help us judge their quality and draw more accurate conclusions.
The Document Analysis Worksheets on the following pages were developed by the
National Archives for educators and young researchers to assist in the evaluation of
primary sources of various types.
Interpreting Primary Sources
Interpretation is the process of explaining primary sources by revealing their context,
meaning, and significance. Let’s look at an example involving Civil Rights activist Rosa
Parks.
The Arrest Records of Rosa Parks
The documents shown here relating to Mrs. Parks’ arrest are copies that were submitted
as evidence in the Browder v. Gayle case. They are preserved by the National Archives
and Records Administration-Southeast Region in East Point, Georgia, in Record Group
21, Records District Courts of the United States, U.S. District Court for Middle District
of Alabama, Northern (Montgomery) Division. Civil Case 1147, Browder, et al v. Gayle,
et al.
This booking photo, taken at the time of Mrs. Parks' arrest, was discovered in July 2004
by a deputy cleaning out a Montgomery County Sheriff's Department storage room.
Telling the Story Behind the Primary Sources
Authors Stacey Bredhoff, Wynell Schamel, and Lee Ann Potter studied Rosa Park’s
arrest records and combined their new knowledge with what they already knew about the
Civil Rights movement and published this article: "The Arrest Records of Rosa Parks."
Social Education 63, 4 (May/June 1999): 207-211.
Rosa Park’s Arrest Records
On December 1, 1955, during a typical evening rush hour in Montgomery, Alabama, a
42-year-old woman took a seat on the bus on her way home from the Montgomery Fair
department store where she worked as a seamstress. Before she reached her destination,
she quietly set off a social revolution when the bus driver instructed her to move back,
and she refused. Rosa Parks, an African American, was arrested that day for violating a
city law requiring racial segregation of public buses.
In
police custody, Mrs. Parks was booked, fingerprinted, and briefly incarcerated. The
police report shows that she was charged with "refusing to obey orders of bus driver." For
openly challenging the racial laws of her city, she remained at great physical risk while
held by the police, and her family was terrified for her. When she called home, she spoke
to her mother, whose first question was "Did they beat you?"
Mrs. Parks was not the first person to be prosecuted for violating the segregation laws
on the city buses in Montgomery. She was, however, a woman of unchallenged character
who was held in high esteem by all those who knew her. At the time of her arrest, Mrs.
Parks was active in the local National Association for the Advancement of Colored
People (NAACP), serving as secretary to E.D. Nixon, president of the Montgomery
chapter. Her arrest became a rallying point around which the African American
community organized a bus boycott in protest of the discrimination they had endured for
years. Martin Luther King, Jr., the 26-year-old minister of the Dexter Avenue Baptist
Church, emerged as a leader during the well-coordinated, peaceful boycott that lasted 381
days and captured the world’s attention. It was during the boycott that Reverend Martin
Luther King, Jr., first achieved national fame as the public became acquainted with his
powerful oratory.

After Mrs. Parks was convicted under city law, her lawyer filed a notice of appeal.
While her appeal was tied up in the state court of appeals, a panel of three judges in the
U.S. District Court for the region ruled in another case that racial segregation of public
buses was unconstitutional. That case, called Browder v. Gayle, was decided on June 4,
1956. The ruling was made by a three-judge panel that included Frank M. Johnson, Jr.,
and upheld by the United States Supreme court on November 13, 1956.

For
a quiet act of defiance that resonated throughout the world, Rosa Parks is known
and revered as the "Mother of the Civil Rights Movement."
Why Study History?
For the Big Payoff…
Bibliography
"Analysis of Primary Sources." The Historian's Sources. The Library of Congress. 14
Nov. 2005 <http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/lessons/psources/analyze.html>.
District Court of The United States for the Middle District of Alabama-Northern
Division. "Browder v. Galye." National Park Service. 22 Dec. 2004. National Historic
Site, National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior. 15 Nov. 2005
<http://www.nps.gov/malu/documents/browder_v_gayle.htm>.
Education Staff. "Document Analysis Worksheets." ARCHIVES.GOV. U.S. National
Archives and Records Administration. 14 Nov. 2005
<http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/worksheets/index.html>.
Education Staff. "Teaching with Documents: The Arrest Records of Rosa Parks."
ARCHIVES.GOV. U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. 15 Nov. 2005
<http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/rosa-parks/#documents >.
"History and Culture: Questions and Answers." Open Door: Ideas and Voices from MIT.
2003. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 15 Nov. 2005
<http://alumweb.mit.edu/opendoor/200211/dower.shtml>.
Lamb, Annette, and Larry Johnson. "Analyzing Primary Sources." E-Scrapbooking. Feb.
2005. 14 Nov. 2005 <http://escrapbooking.com/primarysources/index.htm>.
"Using Primary Sources." Do History: History Toolkit. Film Study Center, Harvard
University, and Center for History and New Media, George Mason University. 14 Nov.
2005 <http://dohistory.org/on_your_own/toolkit/primarySources.html>.
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