Primary Source - Materials from the time of the person or event being researched. (Letters, diaries artifacts, photographs, and other types of first-hand accounts and records, as well as reminiscences and oral histories. Stories from newspapers of the time may also be primary sources.)
Secondary Source - Materials that were created at a later time. They analyze and interpret primary sources; footnotes or bibliographies can lead to primary sources.
Still confused about Primary vs. Secondary Sources? Check out a short video tutorial!
Newspapers: The New York Times, Baltimore Sun, Christian Science Monitor, Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post.
The New York Times Historical Newspaper 1851-2013
Search The Nation, America's oldest weekly magazine.
Encyclopedia Britannica Academic Online Choose "Primary Sources" and search by topic.
The professor approved alternative to Wikipedia.
Credo Reference provides access to 3,457,271 full text articles in 832 reference books from 109 publishers. Credo believes that everyone deserves the ability to learn and the opportunity to succeed. Credo promotes knowledge building, problem solving and critical thinking to give people the information skills necessary for success throughout their academic, professional and personal lives.
The Southern Maryland Studies Center at the CSM La Plata Library is a local history archive that has tons of primary sources about Charles, Calvert, and St. Mary's County history! There are many prizes at the county level that are sponsored by local history organizations, and your chances of getting one of these cash prizes is much higher if you choose a local history topic! We would be more than happy to work with you one on one to help pick a topic and find some amazing primary sources.
World History
Book call numbers beginning with D.
U.S. History
Book call numbers beginning with E & F.