Primary Sources for Various Topics
by Chao Chen, Humanities Reference Librarian
chao.chen@tufts.edu |
617.627.2057 |
Homepage
| The Assignment | |||
Locate a minimum of two, a maximum of four, primary sources concerning the history, including origin, of your most absorbing nonacademic interest. Write a three-five-page essay of comparison/contrast. Use a minimum of three other modes: description, narration, classification, division, definition, cause/effect, argument. |
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| What Are Primary Sources? | |||
The body of first-hand accounts, observations, written, oral, or visual, created during the time period in question are collectively referred to as primary sources; these also include original data recorded. Secondary sources are works that comment on, analyze, summarize, or interpret the material found in primary sources. Some sources may serve as either primary or secondary sources, depending upon how you use them. For instance, newspapers can function as primary or secondary sources. If you use a newspaper article as a source of information, it’s a secondary source. If you analyze the way a newspaper article represents something, or treat these articles as cultural artifacts of a past time, it’s a primary source. |
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| Sample Interest: Camping. | ||||
1. Start with browsing the Tufts library Catalog on your topic.
2. A subject browses on Camping in the catalog shows that, among other studies on camping, there are publications (books) on Camp sites, facilities, etc., Camping Equipment and supplies, and Handbooks, Manuals, Etc. You might want to examine primary sources as records/artifacts of how people went camping throughout history. Here are some titles, among other possibilities:
You can also use certain contents in books for the historical facts. For example, catalogs of equipment and so on listed in earlier books on camping:
3. There may not always be the "perfect" monograph (a book treating a singular topic), so you need to look for books, in which your topic is part of a broader discussion. (thematic studies composed of unrelated essays, or of chapters of a sustained argument). This sample search looks for all sports, but any single type in the Catalog: su:(manual* or handbook*) and su:sport* (su: searches for words as subject indexing terms in the Catalog.)
4. When you have one relevant book, go to the Bookstacks and browse for other books next to yours. Often times, you will be pleasantly surprised by other titles nearby. |
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The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) Online
"OED," is generally considered the world's most authoritative and comprehensive guide to the evolution of the English language over the last millennium. It started as a ten volume set first published in 1928; it grew to 20 volumes by its 2nd edition printed in 1989; and its 3-volume Additions Series were published in 1993 (volumes 1 and 2) and 1997 (volume 3).
Between one and two thousand new and revised entries are added to the online Dictionary every quarter, replacing older versions from the Second Edition and Additions Series.
The OED focuses on "historical principles", in its original editors' famous phrase. That is to say it strives to provide every known meaning of a word and it lists these meanings chronologically.
Each meaning is illustrated with quotations that are drawn from a wide range of sources: from Shakespeare's plays and specialist periodicals to film scripts and cookery books, and much, much more.
Here are the OED Online entries on "Hang out" and "Work-out"
hang out v. intr. slang (in early use chiefly U.S.), to spend or pass time, esp. habitually, idly, or at leisure, usually at a specified place or with specified company; to socialize informally, esp. as part of a peer group; (of two or more people) to associate, spend time together; freq. with at, with, etc.
1846 Swell's Night Guide 36 Nor is this hall all that is, for there is a rendezvous or nocturnal meeting, wines, music, the song and the dance. Here also hang out some of the prima donnas of the flags and curbs, some of the small fry of 80, Quadrant [sc. another saloon]. 1868 H. ALGER Ragged Dick xxii. 246 ‘Where do you hang out?’.. ‘At Henderson's hat and cap store, on Broadway.’ 1913 G. J. KNEELAND Commercialized Prostitution N.Y. 65 She was ‘lined up’ about a year ago by a gang that ‘hangs out’ in a cigar store on East 14th Street. 1951 N. ROREM Paris Diary (1966) i. 7 She encouraged gaudy and exhibitionistic comportment..partly to give herself an identity with the post-surrealist gang she hung out with. 1978 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 8 Feb. 31/5 Just get your minnow-loaded spreader down on bottom... That's where the trout hang out during winter in this lake. 1982 S. BELLOW Dean's December iii. 51 They don't plan, and don't ‘do’; they only hang out. 1992 B. STERLING Hacker Crackdown 124 Nodes were larger, faster and more sophisticated than mere boards, and for hackers, to hang out on internationally connected nodes was quite the step up from merely hanging out on local boards. 2000 Chicago Tribune 1 Sept. VII. 38/4 With live music on Sundays and an oxygen bar, this is a great place to hang out.
orig. and chiefly U.S. slang. To pass time idly or aimlessly; to associate or socialize informally with (esp. as part of a peer group). Cf. earlier hang out vb. at Additions.
1941 New Yorker 26 Apr. 22 To hang,..means to loiter. ‘I used to hang in Forty-sixth Street, front of Variety,’ a small bookmaker may say. 1969 Playboy Dec. 100/1 When I'm not on a football field, I hang with whoever I want to hang with. 1988 D. WATERS Heathers (film script) 86 Do you think, do you really think, if Betty Finn's fairy godmother made her Cool, she'd still act nice and hang with her dweebette friends? 2001 C. GLAZEBROOK Madolescents 207 We could listen to some music, phone for a pizza. I dunno..just hang.
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Work-out
a. A boxing bout for practice; more widely, an exercise session, practice, or test.
1909 R. A. WASON Happy Hawkins 161, I expect to give it a fair good work-out before I'm through with it. 1923 H. C. WITWER Fighting Blood iii. 96, I ain't going to get no gym workout. 1927 Daily Express 27 May 13/7 Either in a work-out or in an actual contest. 1938 M. K. RAWLINGS Yearling ix. 98 ‘Will we take both dogs?’ ‘Nobody but old Julia. She ain't had a work-out since she was hurt. A slow hunt'll do her good.’ 1952 Sun (Baltimore) 3 Mar. 28/3 The United States Air Force Filter Center here had its first surprise workout yesterday. 1960 Sunday Express 27 Nov. 14/3 Work-out gymnasia with..general slimming equipment. 1963 A. ROSS Australia 63 vii. 128 Both teams had work-outs at the Oval, over-watered pitches making net practice impracticable. 1972 Daily Tel. 6 Sept. 6/8, I am not suggesting that old people should do strenuous physical work-outs, but stiff joints and muscles may be helped by properly supervised exercises. 1979 Tucson Mag. Apr. 56/1 (Advt.), A multitude of weight training systems designed to accommodate your kind of workout room. 1981 J. FONDA Jane Fonda's Workout Bk. (1982) 22 She took me to an exercise class that put me through the most vigorous and thorough workout I had ever had.
| Tip. Select World News Digest; browse by: | ||
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| Also consult, particularly for information about foreign countries: | ||
| The Statesman's Year-book, 1890-2009. (Stacks: JA51 .S7) | ||
| World Almanac, 1894 -2009. (Stacks: AY67.N5 W7). | ||
Historical Newspapers:
New York Times 1851 -three years before current date
Times (of London) Digital Archive1785 - 1985.
Ethnic NewsWatch: A History (1960 - 1989) (ethnic, minority and native presses)
American Newspapers (1690 - 1922)
Early Newspapers on Microforms (at Tisch Library)
U. S. and Foreign Newspapers on Micorforms (at Widener Library, Harvard University)
Other significant newspaper collections can be found in the
Boston Public Library Newspaper Room
State Library of Massachusetts Newspapers and Periodicals.
(The full texts of regional newspapers may not be available, but the one or two lines of summary offers highlights of the news story.)
Historical Magazines:
Nation, The 1865 - (the oldest continuously published weekly journal in America)
New Republic 1914 -
National Review 1955 - (with a conservative viewpoint)
Time Magazine 1923-
British Periodicals (1680s - 1930s)
Search across some of the oldest continuously published magazines in America in OpinionArchives
The articles searched are from the entire archives of each journal. Several of the journals may omit the recent issues, but most journals are current with the print publications.
American Spectator
Commentary
Commonweal
Dissent
Harpers Magazine
NACLA
The Nation
The National Review
The New Republic
New York Review
The New Yorker
In Print
Foreign Broadcast Information Service (1974-1996; some records may of earlier dates)
FBIS is a United States government operation which translates the text of daily broadcasts, government statements, and select news stories from non-English sources around the world. One report with translations is issued for each of eight world regions for each day.
Women and Social Movements 1600-2000
Women Working 1800 - 1930
Gerritsen Collection late 19th century - . (The study of women’s history)
Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature (1900 -2004) (Tisch Reference [GEN] AI3 .R48)
(Index of popular and general interest magazines published in the United States and Canada.)
1. Search for letters, correspondence, personal narratives, memoirs, diaries, interviews, and so on in the Tufts Library Catalog:
2. WorldCat (catalogs of libraries worldwide)
Procedure Note:
1. Verify if Tufts Library has the book you need.
2. Use ILliad (interlibrary loan service) to request non-Tufts books.
Use the Advanced Keyword search mode:
Click to see the search results.
Click to see the search results. Speeches and Adresses Vital Speeches of the Day, 1933 - present. (Bound Periodicals; PN6121 .V52) |
Use the Advanced Keyword search for photographs and so on:
Click to see the search results.
Click to see the search results. Search, for music or documentary films by selecting a format in the Library Catalog:
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- Genealogists/Family Historians
- Veterans and their Families
Contact Connie Reik, our government documents specialist.
Presidential speeches
Government Document
Manuscript
Photographs and Images
Statistics | Opinion Polls | Advertisements
Historical Statistics of the US Online
Cambridge University Press publishes this title, the millennial edition, with the permission of the U.S. Census Bureau. This compendium of statistics includes over 37,000 data series on various topics.
Tip: search by the key word, “marriage” and you will find statistic tables such as
Marriage and divorce rates: 1920-1995
Live births, deaths, infant deaths, marriages, and divorces, by race: 1909-1998
Aliens naturalized, by provision: 1907-1997
U.S. Census Bureau , including the following titles:
The Statistical Abstract of the United States1878 - present.
The authoritative and comprehensive summary of statistics on the social, political, and economic organization of the United States.Tips:
1. Use the Abstract as a convenient volume for statistical reference, and as a guide to sources of more information both in print and on the Web.
2. There is a "Summary Statistics" section which provides access to USA Statistics in Brief, Historical Statistics including population, immigration, financial, and health data for as far back as 1900, and State Rankings for various topics including population, income and employment.Example: browse by the section of "Education"; look at "Education: Higher Education: Institutions and Enrollment".
Select "Earlier Editions" from the menu bar for earlier years.USA Counties
USA Counties features over 5,900 data items for the United States, States and counties from a variety of sources. Files include data published for 2006 estimates and many items from the 2000 Census of Population and Housing, the 1990 census, the 1980 census and the 2002, 1997, 1992, 1987, 1982 and 1977 economic censuses.Tip: Use the print copies for earlier years: County and city data book. 1949-2000. (Stacks: HA202 .A36)
Use print versions:
Datapedia of the United States, 1790-2000: America year by year. (Ref. HA202 .K87 1994)
Historical statistics of the United States: earliest times to the present. Millennial ed. (Ref. HA202 .H57 2006)
Statistical Universe
Statistical information from the U.S. government, including the Statistical Abstract of the United States and other sources. Online version of American Statistics Index, Statistical Reference Index, and Index to International Statistics.
International
United Nations (UN) Statistics Division - Demographic and Social Concerns (Online data available for 1985-2003)
Basic education data including enrollment rates, expenditure and school life expectancy for over 100 countries worldwide.
Tip: use, for earlier years, the print volumes: Demographic yearbook. (1951-2004; earlier years in Book Stacks: HA17 .D45)
Statistical yearbook, United Nations. 1948- present. (earlier years in Book Stacks: HA12.5 .U63)
An annual compilation of a wide range of international economic, social and environmental statistics on over 200 countries and areas of the world, compiled from sources including UN agencies and other international, national and specialized organizations.
International historical statistics: Africa, Asia & Oceania, 1750-2000. (Ref. HA4675 .M552 2003)
International historical statistics: Europe, 1750-2000. (Ref. HA1107 .M5 2003)
International historical statistics: the Americas, 1750-2000. (Ref. HA175 .M55 2003)
Europa World Plus
For earlier years, use print volumes "The Europa year book" (Tisch bookstacks: JA51 .E85 1959) and many other years; 1960-1988 covers entire world.
The Historical Dictionaries
Historical dictionary of India. (Tisch Reference: DS405 .M27 2006)
Historical dictionary of Colombia. (Tisch Book Stacks: F2254 .D38)
Statistical Universe
Statistical information from the U.S. government, including the Statistical Abstract of the United States and other sources. Online version of American Statistics Index, Statistical Reference Index, and Index to International Statistics.
Print Ads from Web sites
Commercials from Web sites
Gallup Brain
The Gallup Brain is a database with polling results from the Gallup Corporation going back to the 1930s.
iPOLL Databank
The iPOLL Databank from the Roper Center Public Opinion Archives focuses on national scope surveys and contains not only the complete question text and responses to half a million questions from as far back as 1935, but also information such as study abstracts, links to questionnaires, datasets and citation information where available.
Polling the Nations
Polling the Nations is a comprehensive collection of public opinion material from the United States and abroad. It contains the full text of some 400,000 questions and responses on 4,500 topics.
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Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace / Elizabeth Shown Mills Fundamentals of evidence analysis -- Fundamentals of citation -- Archives & artifacts -- Business & institutional records -- Cemetery records -- Census records -- Church records -- Local & state records: courts & governance -- Local & state records: licenses, registrations, rolls & vital records -- Local & state records: property & probates -- National government records -- Publications: books, CDs, maps, leaflets & videos -- Publications: legal works & government documents -- Publications: periodicals, broadcasts & web miscellanea. |
IM: TischLibrarian
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