Primary sources are firsthand accounts or evidence created during the time being studied. They typically include diaries, letters, autobiographies, photographs, speeches, artworks, video and sound recordings, maps, artifacts, court documents, oral histories, and newspaper articles and government documents created at the time.
Many museum, libraries and archives digitize their primary sources so that you can access them easily. You'll find links to some of these collections on this page.
Secondary sources are sources created later by someone who did not experience the events first-hand. Historians use primary sources to interpret the past, and publish their interpretations in the form of secondary sources. Secondary sources can include books, textbooks and articles that interpret or discuss original primary sources.