How do I do primary resource research for history?
Sharon Comstock
(scomsto@vertex.ucls.uchicago.edu)
(ready to use)
Coauthors
ASK
Subject Areas
| Educational Technology, Information Science, Social Studies |
Grade Levels
Unit Keywords
|
Branham, History, U.S. History, Primary, Resources, Research, Online |
Rationale of the Unit
| Many students need to find primary resources, but don't know where to begin. This bibliography is meant to guide them. |
Background and Resources
NEED HELP WITH YOUR MR. BRANHAM PAPER?
LOOKING FOR PRIMARY SOURCES?
TRY SOME OF THE BELOW FOR STARTING POINTS:
REFERENCE BOOKS:
These secondary sources are helpful for getting ideas and using for background reseaarch:
R973.9 G66a
American Chronicle: Year by Year Through the Twentieth Century
New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1995. Gordon, Louis and Alan Gordon
Good source for the very early years of the 1900s. Has statistics, news, entertainment, art, literature, science, technology, sports and fashion.
R 973.03 C55
Chronicle of America
Mount Kisco, NY : Chronicle, (1989?). A documentary chronology of American history from the discovery and exploration of a new world to the present. Illustrations.
R973.9 E92a
The American Century
New York: Knopf, 1998. Evans, Harold.
Chapter 1, "The Last Frontier, 1889-1893); Chapter 2 Showdown for Democracy (1890-1898); Chapter Three The Lure of Empire (1898-1905); Chapter Four: "Old and New Americans" (1880-1910); Chapter Five "Workers Take a Stand" (1893-1916). Excellent survey with over 900 photographs.
R 305.4 F82i
Franck, Irene & David Brownstone
Illustrated History of Women: Opening Doors 1870-1899; Winning Through 1900-1929. Danbury, CT: Grolier, 1999.
R 978.02 D13j
Jones, Mary Ellen
Daily Life On: The Nineteenth Century American Frontier
Westport: Greenwood, 1998. Includes bibliography. The "Daily Life On" series gives rich political and social context for historical periods. Bibliography is usefully current
Primary source that can be used for your report:
R 973 C73w
Commager, Henry Steele
Witness to America : A Documentary History of the United States from its Discovery to Modern Times New York : Barnes and Noble Books, 1996. Bibliography: p. 1203. 250 firsthand narratives, grouped in 36 eras of
American life, from the opening of the continent until the
end of World War II.
ELECTRONIC/WEBSITES:
These sites are available from home.
Primary sources:
Duke University: Rare Books, Archives and Manuscripts
http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/
Fantastic site of all primary materials. Advertising, love letters, soldiers' accounts, etc. are included in this collection. Strongly recommended.
American Memory from the Library of Congress
http://memory.loc.gov
This is the historical collection for the National Digital Library, drawing on materials in the Library of Congress' archives. There are many ways to search the site for full-text materials, and we suggest taking time to explore.
National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)
www.nara.gov
Like the American Memory initiative, this government site allows access to digitized original documents (We suggest viewing "The Exhibit Hall" among other areas of the site.)
National Women's History Project
http://www.nwhp.org
Nonprofit site that provides a gateway to other sources and links pertaining to women's history. Go to the "Learning Place" page on the site for links/resources that include primary materials.
Palmer's Index to The Times
http://historyonline.chadwyck.co.uk
Useful for newspaper articles published in the London newspaper. Search the archive limiting by years (e.g., "1790-1905") and then by terms (e.g., "United States" or "America"). This will retrieve digital copies of the original newspaper article.
University of Michigan Online Journal Collection
A comprehensive list (and text) of archival journals.
http://moa.umdl.umich.edu/moa_browse.html
WWW Virtual Library at the University of Kansas
http://www.ukans.edu/history/VL/materials/e-texts.html
Scroll down to "Specific Languages" and then "English." There are useful electronic sites listed.
University of Kansas: The Kansas Collection: Lost diaries, letters, books
http://www.ukans.edu/carrie/kancoll/
The homepage of the following sites of archived materials at the University of Kansas. While these are at the U of K, the topics and archived materials are good finds:
University of Kansas, Windows to the Past project
http://www.ukans.edu/carrie/kancoll/galwin.htm
Here find postcards from the period.
University of Kansas, On the Trail
http://www.ukans.edu/carrie/kancoll/galtrl.htm
Extremely useful first-person accounts, documents, letters, and summaries on the trails westward.
University of Kansas, The Way it Was
http://www.ukans.edu/carrie/kancoll/galway.htm
Mostly summaries, but the article on baseball is noteworthy.
If you are interested on baseball, try http://www.baseballhalloffame.org. This has some primary materials, but is more useful for locating sources and background.
University of Kansas, Reminiscing: Memoirs
http://www.ukans.edu/carrie/kancoll/galremm.htm
Fantastic site of first-person articles and journals about prairie life. emmigrating to America, post-civil war life for former soldiers, etc. (Not all of the accounts fall within your period parameters.)
University of Kansas: The Last of the Great Scouts, Buffalo Bill Cody
http://www.ukans.edu/carrie/kancoll/books/cody/
This is the full text of the book published in the late 1800s by Bill Cody's sister.
University of Kansas: The Orphan Trains
http://www.ukans.edu/carrie/kancoll/articles/orphans/
An excellent site about the Orphan Trains that ran from 1867-1935. First person accounts, background, and artifacts are available on the site.
University of Kansas: Heroes and Villians
http://www.ukans.edu/carrie/kancoll/galhero.htm
Has secondary and primary material on bandits, scouts, soldiers, criminals, and unfortunates.
University of California, Berkeley: Oral History Online
http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/ROHO/ohonline/
An excellent source for oral histories pertaining to subjects such as the early suffragists. If the years don't quite fit the parameters for this paper, keep it mind for the future.
University of California, Berkeley: The Suffragists
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu:2020/dynaweb/teiproj/oh/suffragists/
The women interviewed describe the lives of their mothers and give context to the suffragist movement.
University of California, Berkeley, Online Archive of California
http://sunsite2.berkeley.edu/oac/
General site worth perusing for primary materials.
University of California, Berkeley, Jack London Collection
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/London/
Rich site of primary and secondary materials about this famous writer of "The Call of the Wild."
OTHER SOURCES (Some available online):
The Chicago Public Library: Special Collections
http://www.chipublib.org/001hwlc/hwspe.html
On the ninth floor of the Harold Washington Library you can find archival materials relating to Chicago and Illinois history. One of the best publicly accessible collections of primary sources.
Below are primary and secondary sources that relate directly to Special Collection holdings. Click on "Digital Collections" arrows when you see them in the text.
Haymarket Square Riot
http://www.chipublib.org/004chicago/timeline/haymarket.html
Hull House:
http://www.chipublib.org/004chicago/timeline/hullhouse.html
Reversing the Chicago River: Engineering Feat
http://www.chipublib.org/004chicago/timeline/riverflow.html
Chicago Historical Society: Research Collections
http://www.chicagohistory.org/collections/index.html
You can examine what the Chicago Historical Society has, but you must physically go CHS.
Chicago Historical Society: Research Center
http://www.chicagohistory.org/collections/links.html#us_hist
There are many websites that do contain primary materials linked from the CHS list. Take some time to hunt.
Available on campus only:
University of Chicago Library, electronic archives
(Only available through a University gateway, i.e. an Internet-accessible computer here on campus.)
http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/su/hist/#archives
2/2002
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Activities and Open-ended problems
IN-CLASS ACTIVITIES
Ask students to define primary and secondary sources. Explain how what once may have been considered a secondary source, may become a primary source with time. Discuss authenticity, issues surrounding the source of materials, and the value of primary source research.
Students will define their own topics, engaging in the refining of their topics as they engage in the research process.
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Dialogues, Discussions, and Presentations
I would suggest we post students' response to their topics: what they discovered on as their topic, why it piqued their interests, and what they learned from the projects.
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Assessment, Related Questions, and Story of the Unit
I would like to hear what they would like to learn more about; those areas they couldn't include because of the parameters of the assignment.
STORY OF THE UNIT -- How did it go?
RESPONSES FROM OTHERS (teachers)
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