Historical primary sources
What are primary sources?
Primary sources
Records that provide firsthand accounts or evidence of historical
events or experiences. Primary source material can be published (eg. reports,
autobiographies, interviews in contemporary newspapers) or unpublished
(eg. original letters, diaries, papers held within an archive).
Secondary sources
Secondhand accounts of historical events or experiences, which analyse
and interpret the relevant primary sources. Secondary source material (eg.
books, textbooks, journal articles) is usually written at a much later
time after the event.
Note: You may also find primary source material reproduced within
a secondary source, such as a documentary history or a biography.
[The above definitions have been modelled on those provided on the Library
of Congress’ Historian's Sources web guide.]
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Searching web sites
Some libraries, archives and museums have begun digitising examples of
original texts, documents and pictures in their collections, so that you
can view the fulltext and/or images of these on their web sites. For example:
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Searching the Library Catalogue
The Library holds a wide range of published documentary histories, autobiographies
etc. Many older titles can be difficult to locate on the Library Catalogue due to their broad subject headings. Try some of
the recommended search terms shown below.
Historical documents and reports
To find books containing official documents, reports, historic news items
etc., use a Keyword search on the Catalogue and try adding terms such as:
- source* (finds sources, sourcebook, primary sources)
- document* (finds documents, documentary history, documentary account)
- record* and histor* (finds historic records or historical records)
- report* (finds report, royal commission report)
- speeches
- facsim* (finds facsim., facsimiles, facsimile reproduction)
- reprint* and histor* (finds historical reprints)
For example: keyword> australia* and histor* and document*
For other sources of government reports check the Library's Indexes
to Parliamentary Papers guide.
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Autobiographies, diaries and letters
To find autobiographical accounts of events use a Keyword search on the Catalogue and try adding terms such as:
- biograph* (finds biography, biographies or biographical)
- autobiograph* (finds autobiography, autobiographies or autobiographical)
- narrative* (finds personal narratives or narrative account)
If the above terms do not produce results try more specific terms such
as:
- diar* (finds diary or diaries)
- letter* (finds letter or letters)
- correspondence
- memoir* (finds memoir or memoirs)
- travel* (finds travel writings or travelers' account)
- notebook* (finds notebook or notebooks)
For example: keyword> war* and narrative*
For more sources of biographical information check the Library's Biographies
guide.
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Oral histories
To find transcripts or recordings of oral histories use a Keyword search
on the Catalogue and try adding terms such as:
- oral histor* (finds oral history or oral histories)
- interview* (finds interview or interviews)
- reminisc* (finds reminiscences)
- recollect* (finds recollections)
For example: keyword> war* and interview*
You can also check the Archives' collection of Oral
History Recordings.
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Photographs and images
To find pictorial coverage of historical events use a Keyword search on
the Catalogue and try adding terms
such as:
- photo** (finds photographs, photographic)
- pict** (finds pictures, pictorial works)
- ill** (finds illustrated, illustrations)
- image* (finds images)
For example: keyword> sydney and histor* and pict**
You can also search the various online image collections available from
the Finding Archives web page.
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More catalogue search tips
Think about the broader terms or phrases that describe your
subject area. Try searching for these using a Keyword search.
For example: keyword> british colonialism
Use the *truncation symbol to broaden your search to find all
the variations of a particular word (use the ** symbol to truncate more
than 5 letters)
For example: keyword> coloni** (finds colonial, colonialism, colonies,
colonisation, colonization, etc.)
When you find an item on the Catalogue look at the subject headings used to describe it. These may provide other useful terms for searching.
For example: subject> great britain colonies
For Australian primary sources also try searching on the names
of the individual states and territories.
For example: keyword> new south wales and history
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Examples of documentary history books
Examples of published collections of historical documents held in the Library's
Main Lending Collection (Level 1) include:
| Title |
Call number |
| Australia's Women: A Documentary History |
305.420994/22 |
| The Struggle for Aboriginal Rights: A Documentary History |
323.119915/27 |
| Documents on Australian Foreign Policy 1937-49 (multivolume set) |
327.94/8 |
| Australian Trade Unionism in Documents |
331.880994/42 |
| Australian Labor History in Documents (3 volumes) |
335.00994/3 |
| Select Documents in Australian Education, 1788-1900 |
370.994/2 |
| Documents on the Establishment of Education in New South Wales, 1789-1880 |
370.9944/12 |
| Historic Documents of World War 1 |
940.3/26 |
| Historic Documents of World War 11 |
940.3508/1 |
| Documents and Readings in the History of Europe Since 1918 |
940.5/19 |
| History Of South-East, South And East Asia: Essays And Documents |
950/22 |
| Select Documents in Australian History (Clark) |
994/3 |
| Modern Australia in Documents (Crowley) (2 volumes) |
994.04/2 |
| A Documentary History of Australia (Crowley) (multivolume set) |
994.04/2A |
| Historical Records of New South Wales (multivolume set) |
994.4/59 |
| Historical Records of Victoria (multivolume set) |
994.502/8 |
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Need further help?
Contact Research Help staff.
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