Primary Sources

A primary source is a book, document, recording, photo, or other source of information that was created during the time you are studying.   The author or creator has direct personal knowledge of the events being described. It serves as an original source of information about the topic.

Primary sources can be found in libraries, museums, databases, etc.

The advantage of using primary sources is that they are the direct eyewitness accounts of events.

The drawbacks to using primary sources are they could be forgeries, they can be biased, or they can be inaccurate.  

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