Types of sources

"The secret of freedom

lies in educating people,
whereas the secret of
tyranny is in keeping
them ignorant."

- Maximilien Robespierre

 When is it considered a
historical source?

- important historical information in the form of

documents, heritage, videos, word of mouth, art,
artifacts, fossils and more that gives us clue or exact
information on what transpired in the past
2 Types of sources

Primary Source
Secondary Source
Why the need to DISTINGUISH
BETWEEN TYPES OF SOURCES?

Because studying history is an

investigation. Your sources must
be clearly defined.
 PRIMARY SOURCES
• created at the time of the under study
• Account of the eyewitness/eyewitnesses
• recorded by the person who experienced or participated in the event
• They are immediate, first-hand accounts of a topic, from people who had a
direct connection with it
• can be described as those sources that are closest to the origin of the
information. They contain raw information and thus, must be interpreted by
researchers.
 PRIMARY SOURCES

Official art Statistical

works Maps tables/grap
photographs
hs/charts

Diary/ News
Speech Artifacts
scrapbooks./ articles
journals

Podcasts, tapped convo, g'ov't newsletters, press release, oral history

 secondary SOURCES
• Testimony of anyone who is not an eyewitness or one who was not
present at the event he is telling in his story.
• However, if the witness wrote his/her story years after the
event, that will still be considered a primary source
• These are works that analyze, assess, or interpret a historical event,
era, or phenomenon, generally utilizing primary sources to do so.
 secondary SOURCES

Scholarly feature
Reference
Textbooks articles
journals books

Editorial Wikipedia/
almanac
Columns encyclopedia
is one better than
the other?
They are equally important.
corroborate!
Relying on secondary sources may blur out
actual details.
To determine their reliability.
Trying to picture the past is like completing a
puzzle. The pieces must fit with each other or
you'll get a distorted image.
EXAMPLE:
Thank you!