Primary Sources are found in a range of places, including:
- in archives and cultural repositories
- with families and organizations who created them
- reproduced in books and publications
- digitized and online
Cultural repositories with historic records and archives have been digitizing them and sharing them online for decades. What is online usually represents a small selection of the repository's records. If you find primary sources online, you can trace the materials back to their repository and see what additional materials are available.
When you are starting your search for primary sources online, these are some things to consider:
- Who may have created materials or collected materials on this topic? Where might their records live now?
- What formats of materials may have been created about this topic? (letters, objects, published work, newspaper articles, maps, architectural drawings, oral histories, interviews, photographs, etc)
With this information, you can begin searching online to find where these materials currently live. Archives and cultural repositories often have collecting scopes that guide their collections. They might gather materials on a particular topic, on a geographic location, on a particular organization or community. Other tips include checking citations in published research on the topic. Which archives are researchers and scholars citing?