WRT 101

Primary sources refer to documents or other items that provide first-hand, eyewitness accounts of events.
A newspaper article written at the time an event took place (Pearl Harbor, for example) is a primary source. 

Some examples of primary source materials are:

• Printed texts, including books, newspapers, diaries, pamphlets, magazines, and journals
• Manuscripts
• Maps
• Paintings
• Artifacts
• Audio and video recordings
• Oral histories
• Photographs
• Dissertations
• Government documents

Primary sources are different from secondary sources are written later and usually comment on or analyze historic events or original documents.