Research & Subject Guides: Women's, Gender, &amp; Sexuality Studies (WGSS): Primary Sources

What is a primary source?

Primary vs. Secondary vs. Tertiary

Primary source is a term used in a number of disciplines to describe source material that is closest to the person, information, period, or idea being studied.

Primary Source
"In scholarship, a document or record containing firsthand information or original data on a topic, used in preparing a derivative work. Primary sources include original manuscripts, periodical articles reporting original research or thought, diaries, memoirs, letters, journals, photographs, drawings, posters, film footage, sheet music, songs, interviews, government documents, public records, eyewitness accounts, newspaper clippings, etc."

Secondary Source
"Any published or unpublished work that is one step removed from the original source, usually describing, summarizing, analyzing, evaluating, derived from, or based on primary source materials, for example, a review, critical analysis, second-person account, or biographical or historical study. Also refers to material other than primary sources used in the preparation of a written work."

Tertiary Source
"A written work, such as a chapter in a textbook or entry in a reference book, based entirely on secondary sources, rather than on original research involving primary documents. Whether a source is secondary or tertiary can be determined by examining the bibliography (if one is provided). Another clue is that secondary sources are almost always written by experts, but tertiary sources may be written by staff writers who have an interest in the topic but are not scholars on the subject."

Primary sources are distinguished from secondary sources, which cite, comment on, or build upon primary sources, though the distinction is not a sharp one. "Primary" and "secondary" are relative terms, with sources judged primary or secondary according to specific historical contexts and what is being studied.

Still confused? Check out this guide from Yale or watch the video on this page.

Definitions from ODLIS — Online Dictionary for Library and Information Science by Joan M. Reitz

Online Databases

The following databases provide primary source material:

American Memory (Library of Congress)
Coverage varies. Free and open access to written and spoken words, sound recordings, still and moving images, prints, maps, and sheet music that document the American experience. A digital record of American history and creativity. From the collections of the Library of Congress and other institutions.

African American Newspapers (1827-1998)
1827-1998. Full-text. Online access to approximately 270 U.S. newspapers from more than 35 states—including many rare and historically significant 19th century titles. Beginning with Freedom's Journal (NY)—the first African American newspaper published in the United States—the titles in this resource include The Colored Citizen (KS), Arkansas State Press, Rights of All (NY), Wisconsin Afro-American, New York Age, L'Union (LA), Northern Star and Freeman's Advocate (NY), Richmond Planet, Cleveland Gazette, The Appeal (MN) and hundreds of others from every region of the U.S.
America's Historical Newspapers
1755-1922. Fulltext. More than 135 historic newspapers from all 50 states. Titles include The Liberator, William Lloyd Garrison's anti-slavery newspaper; New Orleans Daily Creole, the first African-American newspaper in America; Siwinowe Kesibwi (Shawnee Star), the first newspaper printed wholly in a Native American language; and the Maryland Gazette, the oldest continuously published newspaper in America. Regional newspapers include The New York Herald, Irish World, and Jewish Daily News.
Gale OneFile: Contemporary Women's Issues
1992-present. Fulltext. Books, articles, newsletters, and reports. 2000 sources from 250 organizations: mainstream periodicals, "gray" literature, and alternative presses from over 190 countries.
Gale Primary Sources
Provides access and simultaneous cross searching of six Gale primary source databases: The 17th and 18th Century Burney Collection, Eighteenth Century Collections Online, The Making of the Modern World, The Times Digital Archive, Sabin Americana, 1500-1926, Eighteenth Century Collections Online, and Witchcraft in Europe and America (Archives Unbound). Gale Primary Sources also allows researchers to visualize search data by term frequency. Researchers can search all six databases at once using this portal, or access each individually by visiting the appropriate page in the A-Z list.
Gale Primary Sources: Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Burney Newspapers Collection
1604–1800. Full-text. The newspapers and news pamphlets gathered by the Reverend Charles Burney (1757 - 1817) represent the largest single collection of 17th and 18th century English news media. The Burney Collection provides rare and often unique content for scholarly research into a wide range of political, educational, economic or journalistic study. Digitized from important holdings in the British Library, the collection contains nearly 1 million pages, more than 700 bound volumes and over 1,200 titles, including pamphlets, proclamations, newsbooks and newspapers published in London, the English provinces, Ireland, Scotland, the American colonies, Europe and India.
Latin American Historical Newspapers
1805-1922. Full-text. Over 300 Latin American newspapers published in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Combining Latin American Newspapers Series I & II, the collection features papers in English, Spanish and Portuguese from 20 countries, including key titles such as La Nacion, La Prensa and Vanguardia (Buenos Aires), Jornal do Commercio (Rio de Janeiro), O Estado de São Paulo (São Paulo), Mercurio (Santiago), La Prensa (Havana), La Patria, Mexican Herald and El Monitor Republicano (Mexico City) , El Peruano and West Coast Leader (Lima) and Venezuelan Herald (Caracas).
North American Women's Letters and Diaries
Colonial-1950. Fulltext primary sources. The experiences of 1,325 women in 150,000 pages of diaries and letters. Includes biographies and an extensive annotated bibliography of the sources.
Oral History Online
Fulltext and citations. Indexes more than 2,700 collections of Oral History in English from around the world. Contains almost 281,000 pages of full-text by close to 10,000 individuals from all walks of life. Also has pointers to 4,100 audio and video files.
Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000
1600-2000. Fulltext primary sources. Women's reform activities in the U.S. from colonial times to the present. Includes books, pamphlets, images, documents, scholarly essays, commentaries, and bibliographies.

Historic Newspapers

African American Newspapers (1827-1998)
1827-1998. Full-text. Online access to approximately 270 U.S. newspapers from more than 35 states—including many rare and historically significant 19th century titles. Beginning with Freedom's Journal (NY)—the first African American newspaper published in the United States—the titles in this resource include The Colored Citizen (KS), Arkansas State Press, Rights of All (NY), Wisconsin Afro-American, New York Age, L'Union (LA), Northern Star and Freeman's Advocate (NY), Richmond Planet, Cleveland Gazette, The Appeal (MN) and hundreds of others from every region of the U.S.
America's Historical Newspapers
1755-1922. Fulltext. More than 135 historic newspapers from all 50 states. Titles include The Liberator, William Lloyd Garrison's anti-slavery newspaper; New Orleans Daily Creole, the first African-American newspaper in America; Siwinowe Kesibwi (Shawnee Star), the first newspaper printed wholly in a Native American language; and the Maryland Gazette, the oldest continuously published newspaper in America. Regional newspapers include The New York Herald, Irish World, and Jewish Daily News.
Latin American Historical Newspapers
1805-1922. Full-text. Over 300 Latin American newspapers published in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Combining Latin American Newspapers Series I & II, the collection features papers in English, Spanish and Portuguese from 20 countries, including key titles such as La Nacion, La Prensa and Vanguardia (Buenos Aires), Jornal do Commercio (Rio de Janeiro), O Estado de São Paulo (São Paulo), Mercurio (Santiago), La Prensa (Havana), La Patria, Mexican Herald and El Monitor Republicano (Mexico City) , El Peruano and West Coast Leader (Lima) and Venezuelan Herald (Caracas).
New York Times (Historical)
Coverage: 1851-3 years ago.

Online access to page images and fulltext articles from the New York Times as far back as the first issue.
Gale Primary Sources: The Times Digital Archive, 1785-2014
1785-1985. Full text. Digital edition of The Times (London) with searching capability and facsimile images of individual articles or the complete page. Includes parliamentary debates, editorials, birth and death notices, advertisements, illustrations/photos and classified ads. More than 7 million articles. Does not include the Sunday Times, the Times Educational Supplement, the Times Higher Education Supplement, or the Times Literary Supplement.
Washington Post (Historical)
1877-1997. Fulltext. Digitized historical archive of The Washington Post. Complete issues, cover to cover, from its beginning in 1877 until 1997, including news articles, photos, advertisements, marriage announcements, obituaries, cartoons, and more. In searchable pdf format.

Special Collections @ SBU Libraries

Special Collections is open by appointment only. Call 631.632.7119 to make an appointment.

Herstory Writers Workshop Collection
Women's History Ephemera Collection
Women's International League for Peace and Freedom - Central Suffolk Branch (NY) Collection
Long Island Pride Parade, Inc. - Gay and Lesbian Community Collection

Primary Sources Guide

Primary Sources
by Kristen J. Nyitray Last Updated Apr 13, 2024 319 views this year

What are primary sources?

Primary sources are first-hand accounts of an event or topic by someone who has direct knowledge or experience with it.

Examples of primary sources include:

Diaries
Research data, clinical reports, case studies
Newspaper articles
Speeches
Interviews
Creative works such as photographs, video, music

Women's, Gender, & Sexuality Studies (WGSS)