Historical source

Short description: Sources of history

A historical source encompasses "every kind of evidence that human beings have left of their past activities — the written word and spoken word, the shape of the landscape and the material artefact, the fine arts as well as photography and film."[1]

While the range of potential historical sources has expanded to include many non-documentary sources, nevertheless "the study of history has nearly always been based squarely on what the historian can read in documents or hear from informants".[2]

Historical sources are usually divided into primary and secondary, though some historians also refer to tertiary sources.

## Types

### Primary source

In the study of history as an academic discipline, a "primary source" (also called an "original source") is a first hand account of events by someone who lived through them. "Primary sources were made during the historical period that is being investigated."[3]

### Secondary source

In scholarship, a secondary source[4][5] is a document or recording that relates or discusses information originally presented elsewhere.

A secondary source is one that gives information about a primary source. In a secondary source, the original information is selected, modified and arranged in a suitable format. Secondary sources involve generalization, analysis, interpretation, or evaluation of the original information.

### Tertiary source

A tertiary source is an index or textual consolidation of already published primary and secondary sources[6] that does not provide additional interpretations or analysis of the sources.[7][8] Some tertiary sources can be used as an aid to find key (seminal) sources, key terms, general common knowledge[9] and established mainstream science on a topic. The exact definition of tertiary varies by academic field.

## See also

* Archive

## External links

* What are Historical Sources? - University of Cambridge Faculty of History

## References

1. ↑ Tosh, John. 1999. The Pursuit of History. 3rd Ed. Longman. p. 36
2. ↑ Tosh, John. 1999. The Pursuit of History. 3rd Ed. Longman. p. 37
3. ↑ "Primary and secondary sources explained". https://www.historyskills.com/source-criticism/analysis/source-kind-and-type/.
4. ↑ "Primary, secondary and tertiary sources ". University Libraries, University of Maryland.
5. ↑ "Secondary sources ". James Cook University.
6. ↑ Primary, secondary and tertiary sources. ". University Libraries, University of Maryland. Retrieve 07/26/2013
7. ↑ "Tertiary Information Sources". Old Dominion University -- ODU Libraries. September 2012. http://www.lib.odu.edu/genedinfolit/1infobasics/tertiary_information_sources.html.
8. ↑ "Tertiary sources ". James Cook University.
9. ↑ "Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Resources ". University of New Haven.

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Historiography

* Historical method
* History
* Big History
* history
* theories of history
* historiography
* historians

Historical sources|

| Types|

* Primary sources
* Secondary sources
* Tertiary sources

|

Sources|

* Archives
* Artifact
* Archaeological site
* Codices
* Deeds
* Facsimiles
* Feature
* Hieroglyphs
* Historical documents
* Manuscripts
* Papyri
* Religious texts
* Scrolls

Organizations, Institutes|

* Historical society
* Historiographical Institute of the University of Tokyo

Concepts (choice)|

* Battle for Australia
* Pax Sinica
* Political midlife crisis
* Renaissance
* Translatio imperii

Methodology, Schools (choice)|

* Annales school
* History of mentalities
* Nouvelle histoire
* Case study
* Change and continuity
* Historical linguistics
* Great Man theory
* Heroic theory of invention and scientific development
* Historic recurrence
* Historical anthropology
* Historical determinism
* Historical realism
* Historicism
* Historiometry
* Cliometrics
* Historism
* Marxist historiography
* Historical materialism
* Microhistory
* Codicology
* Palaeography
* Intellectual history
* Idea of Progress
* History of modernisation theory
* Historical criticism
* Historical geography
* Historical geographic information system

By country|

* Albania
* Argentina
* Canada
* China
* Germany
* Hellenic
* Islam
* Japan
* Rome
* North Macedonia
* Serbia
* Encyclopedia of Serbian Historiography
* Soviet Union
* United Kingdom
* United States
* Scotland
* Switzerland

Others|

* Historiography of science
* Historiography of the salon
* Historiography of the May Revolution
* Historiography of World War II
* Functionalism versus intentionalism
* Historiography of early Islam

Related|

* Historical fiction
* Historical revisionism
* Historical negationism
* Historiography and nationalism
* Historical marker
* List of historians

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