Research Guides: College Writing: Official Guide: Explore Primary Sources

PRIMARY SOURCES

What is a Primary Source?

Primary sources are firsthand accounts of events created by individuals during that time. Primary sources can be described as those closest to the origin of the person creating the source. A primary source is the object, with no interpretation.

Primary sources include (but are not limited to):

diaries
manuscripts
artwork (paintings, sculpture)
architectural objects
newspaper accounts of an event
photographs
movies/television shows
Tweets/TikTok videos/Instagram videos

Types of Primary Sources

Items in Special Collections are great primary sources that can be used for your research assignments.

Select the links below to go to the specific area of Special Collections to learn more.

Becker Library Rare Books
Bernard Becker Medical Library has maintained a collection of rare medical texts devoted to scholarship and teaching since 1912. The rare book program developed considerably over the past century, and the Library now holds nine distinct Rare Book Collections totaling approximately 23,000 books and journals. The collections are open to the medical community, historians, and to the general public. The collections’ strengths include ophthalmology, neurology, anatomy, ENT, dentistry, obstetrics and gynecology.
D.B. Dowd Modern Graphic History Library
The D.B. Dowd Modern Graphic History Library at Washington University is comprised of original art and printed material from many fields of popular American pictorial graphic culture. Focusing on 20th-century illustration, the collection includes artists’ working materials and sketches as well as original artwork from books, magazines, and advertising.
Digital Collections
The Digital Collections highlights those portions of the Julian Edison Department of Special Collections that have been made or born-digital.
East Asian Library Special Collections
The East Asian Library houses about 800 volumes of rare and special books, manuscripts, and other types of materials in its special collection. The majority of special holdings relate to Chinese and Japanese literature, art, history, and religion.
Film & Media Archive
The Film & Media Archive is a nationally recognized center for scholarship, teaching, and learning. The Archive is committed to the preservation of documentary film and other media which chronicles America’s great political and social movements with a particular emphasis on the African-American experience.
Local History Collections
The local history collecting area focuses on the history of St. Louis and the surrounding region. While a few documents from the city’s colonial-era are found within the rare books and manuscript collections, most of the archival collections focus on life in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Collections documenting urban development and city life are a particular strength. Contemporary (21st century) St. Louis historic events are also preserved, as with the Regional Ferguson Collecting Initiative and Documenting Ferguson.
Manuscript Collections
WashU Libraries’ Julian Edison Department of Special Collections Manuscript collections contain a broad range of materials dating from the 2nd century BC through the present. The largest group of materials is the Modern Literature Collection which focuses on Anglo and American literary manuscripts in the 20th-21st centuries.
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum
The Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum dates back to 1881 with the founding of the St. Louis School and Museum of Fine Arts at Washington University. Its collection was formed in large part by acquiring significant works by artists of the time, a legacy that continues today. Now one of the finest university collections in the United States, the Museum contains strong holdings of 19th-, 20th-, and 21st-century European and American paintings, sculptures, prints, installations, and photographs.
Modern Literature Collection
The Modern Literature Collection was created as an archive of the work of contemporary English and American writers who were considered critically under-appreciated and whose reputations might grow further in the years to come.The collection includes manuscript materials, such as personal and editorial correspondence, publishers’ proofs, drafts, and ephemera, that reflected the writers’ compositional processes and provided biographical information.
Music Special Collections
Special Collections at the Gaylord Music Library include sheet music, manuscripts, rare books, and digital materials.
Rare Book Collection
The Rare Book Collections include books from all Special Collection areas. The collections’ primary strengths are in the areas of literature; the material culture of the book, including the history of printing, graphic design, and the book arts; and aspects of American and world history.
Washington University Archives
Washington University Archives chronicles the history of Washington University in St. Louis from 1853 to today, with over 300 unique collections including campus publications, reports, photographic prints and negatives, books, film, sound recordings, oral histories, architectural plans, and artifacts.
WU Digital Gateway
The Digital Gateway site hosts projects developed in the libraries and in partnership with faculty outside the libraries, and links to digital projects across the University.

The following are examples of databases that contain primary sources that can be used for your research assignments.

If you need assistance, please contact your College Writing Librarian.

American Film Scripts Online
Over 1,100 (mostly unpublished) scripts. Also includes detailed and fielded information on the scenes, characters and people related to the scripts, and facsimile images for more than 500 of these screenplays. Gift of Mary Wickes in honor of her parents Isabella & Frank Wickenhauser.
Artstor
Images from museums and archives around the world that are available for education and research across disciplines. The Artstor platform is no longer available. Existing individual Artstor accounts will carry over to the new JSTOR platform. To save or download images, users must register for an individual account. Learn more about this database.
Associated Press Collections Online
Associated Press Collections Online includes decades' worth of access to an array of internal AP publications and records from select AP bureaus. Contents provided by Associated Press Corporate Archives, AP Images, and AP Archive.
Everyday Life and Women in America (1800-1920)
Monographs, pamphlets, periodicals and broadsides from the collections of the Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture, Duke University and the New York Public Library.
Popular Culture in Britain and America (1950-1975)
Manuscripts and typescripts, newspapers, magazines, press kits, artist’s files, photographs, advertisements, memorabilia, video footage, and more from library collections in the U.S. and UK. Also includes a chronology with embedded articles and images.
Rock's Backpages
Covers five decades of history. Contains 17,000 articles, interviews, and reviews from a variety of popular music press, from fanzines to titles such as Spin, Rolling Stone, and British New Musical Express. Also includes a discussion forum, audio interviews, writer profiles, and links to radio stations and rock-related websites.
Vogue Archive
Complete, full-text contents of Vogue magazine (US edition) in full color page image, from the first issue in 1892 to the present, with monthly updates for new issues. Learn more about this database .

Statistical data can also be used for primary and/or secondary data for your research.

Databases

The following are a sample of the databases the WashU Libraries subscribes to that provides access to statistical data.

If you need assistance, please contact your College Writing Librarian.

CQ Researcher (1991 - )
Each report provides an in-depth exploration of a news topic. 44 reports per year.
Statesman's Yearbook Online (1864 - 2007)
The Statesman’s Yearbook is an annual publication covering the politics, cultures and economies of all of the countries of the world plus major international organizations. It is authoritative and up-to-date; meticulously compiled by a dedicated in-house editorial team since 1864.
Statista
Portal for business and industry, government, and demographic statistics that integrates thousands of diverse topics of data and facts from some 18,000+ public and commercial sources onto a single, easy-to-search platform. Geographic coverage is worldwide, with particular emphasis on the United States, China, and European Union countries. Categorized into market sectors, Statista provides access to qualitative facts on agriculture, economics, finance, information technology, politics and society, and much more.
Statistical Abstract of the United States
Statistical Abstract of the United States is a one-volume, comprehensive summary of statistics on the social, political, and economic organization of the United States. Learn more about this database.

Websites

The following are websites where you can find statistical data about different topics.

If you need assistance, please contact your College Writing Librarian.

Centers for Disease Control (CDC)
Detecting and responding to new and emerging health threats; Tackling the biggest health problems causing death and disability for Americans; Putting science and advanced technology into action to prevent disease; Promoting healthy and safe behaviors, communities and environment; Developing leaders and training the public health workforce, including disease detectives; Taking the health pulse of our nation
Explore Census Data
Data.census.gov is the new platform to access data and digital content from the U.S. Census Bureau.
National Center for Education Statistics
The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) is the primary federal entity for collecting and analyzing data related to education in the U.S. and other nations. NCES is located within the U.S. Department of Education and the Institute of Education Sciences. NCES fulfills a Congressional mandate to collect, collate, analyze, and report complete statistics on the condition of American education; conduct and publish reports; and review and report on education activities internationally.
Nation Master
NationMaster is a statistics database which offers a large directory of variables for comparison purposes.
A wide range of economic and demographic indicators are available, across 300 industry verticals (agriculture, consumer goods, ICT, pharma…)
World Health Organization
WHO is the United Nations agency that connects nations, partners and people to promote health, keep the world safe and serve the vulnerable – so everyone, everywhere can attain the highest level of health.

Polling and opinion data can be used as primary data for your assignments. Perhaps you want to write about how the view of home ownership has changed from the 1900's to now. There might be polling data that would provide you with primary data.

Polling the Nations is available through the WashU Libraries.

Pew Research Center takes you directly to their website.

Polling the Nations (1986 - )
Questions and responses, from surveys conducted from 1986 through the present in the United States other countries around the world.

Pew Research Center
"Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world. [Pew] conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, content analysis and other data-driven social science research."