Primary sources are original documents and objects created at the time being studied, such as diaries, newspaper accounts, letters, governmental records, or drawings. Any record that documents a past event can be considered a primary source.
You can find primary sources in libraries, museums, and archives, including McGill's Rare Books and Special Collections Library (located on the 4th floor of the McLennan Library building). You can also find digitized primary sources online in library databases, such as those linked below, as well as in digitized collections, such as McGill's Digital Exhibitions & Collections, some of which are linked below.
You can also find primary sources in print and eBooks through the library. Historians and other scholars often bring together (and, when necessary, translate) primary sources in collections called sourcebooks (sometimes spelled source books), readers, or anthologies. You can systematically search for these in the Library Catalogue by using subject headings. Try combining keywords on your topic with the word sources (which demarcate primary sources) in a subject heading search. For example:
Local newspapers provide insight into the social and cultural life of their communities. A selection of historic Canadian newspapers available online are included below. More Canadian newspapers can be found on the Newspapers Subject Guide.
Searchable archive of historical newspapers from Europe, Australia, and the Americas. Coverage varies, from the mid-1800s to 2000s.
2 simultaneous users.
The Chicago Manual of Style offers only limited guidance on citing Canadian Government Documents. Refer instead to the excellent guide from the SFU Library linked below.
An eclectic and multi-faceted resource compiled from archived zines, newspapers and ephemera, to oral histories, films and photographs, to showcase the key social, cultural, and political concerns of the decade.
Find more maps and geospatial data on the Maps & Geospatial Guide.
For more on Black Canadian history, including primary sources, please see the Black Canadian Studies Guide.
For more from Indigenous voices, please see the Indigenous Studies Subject Guide.
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