California History Resources

Primary sources are materials that offer “eyewitness” accounts of people, places, and events of the past. Primary sources provide researchers with first-hand evidence of what occurred in the past. Examples include:

• Letters, diaries, and other documents in which people record their thoughts, observations, experiences, and activities. These often include descriptions of places and events as well.
• Records of governmental agencies (birth certificates, court records, etc.) and businesses (annual reports, meeting minutes, etc.) that document events and activities.
• Photographs, audio and video recordings of people, places, and events.
• Published materials (books, articles) written at the time an event occurred. If a publication is written by an author looking back in time, it is usually a secondary source.

Secondary sources are works that study or interpret people, places, and events of the past. They are not written by someone as an eyewitness account. Secondary sources are typically published works like books or articles. For example, the book Indians of California: The Changing Image is a secondary source. The bibliography of this book reveals that the author’s research was based on both primary sources and secondary sources. Some of the primary sources include diaries and letters of California pioneers, as well as government records such as reports of the US Commissioner of Indian Affairs.