primary and secondary sources

Primary & Secondary Sources

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Primary Sources

A primary source is something created by a person who participated in or saw an event in the past. Artifacts are primary sources. They are objects made in the past by people who used them. 

Do you have a primary source at your home?

Secondary Sources

We can also use secondary sources to learn about life in the past. Secondary sources are materials prepared by people who did not participate in or see events for themselves. These people can study a primary source to help them find out information to create their secondary source. 

What is secondary source that you know of? 

How do they compare?

Historians use primary sources like artifacts to build a picture of life in the past. When they create other documents or objects, like the teepee, totem, or painting in the museum, these become secondary sources. Primary and secondary sources shape our understanding of the past.

Multiple Choice

What kind of source was created by people who participated in or saw an event in the past?

• Primary source

• Secondary source

Multiple Choice

A secondary source is created by people who did NOT see or participate in a event in the past. True or False?

• False

• True

Multiple Select

Check all that are primary sources.

• The arrowheads in the frame were created by the Native Americans to hunt.

• The drum was made in a Native American village to play songs on.

• The painting was created by a man that worked at the museum.

Multiple Select

Check all that are secondary sources.

• The arrowheads in the frame were used by the Native Americans to hunt.

• The teepee was made by a local artist who studies Native Americans.

• The painting was created by a man that works at the museum.

Open Ended

Why would a letter that was written by a Native American tribe member about a war that they were in be a primary source?