How do we learn about events if we weren’t there? How do we know what happened in the past?
How do we know what happened in the past? How do we learn about events if we weren’t there? In your table groups, take the next 4 minutes to discuss these questions and write down your ideas.
Questions: How do we know what happened in the past? How do we learn about events if we weren’t there? Our answers:
Questions: How do we know what happened in the past? How do we learn about events if we weren’t there? A historian’s answers: Primary Sources Secondary Sources
Are accounts of the past created by people writing about events after they have happened Are what historians (and History Day participants) create Secondary Sources Books/Textbooks Encyclopedias Articles Websites
Provide an introduction to a topic Provide historical/broader context for a topic Show how has a topic been interpreted by other historians Provide hints on where to find primary evidence Provide information which enables historians to make sense of primary sources Secondary Sources
Primary Sources: Are left behind by participants or observers Make personal connections to the past Are evidence used by historians to support their interpretation of the past
Primary Sources: Published materials: Books (including memoirs), magazines, and newspapers contemporary to the event
Primary Sources: Unpublished materials: Diaries, letters, manuscripts
Primary Sources: Records: Government documents, census data, birth certificates, organizational minutes, business reports
Primary Sources: Images: Photographs, film, art and posters, advertisements, maps
Primary Sources: Audio: Oral Histories Interviews Recordings
Primary Sources: Artifacts: Buildings, Tombstones, Clothing
Think About It - Over the past week, what evidence have you left behind?
If someone wanted to find out about you from your garbage, what would they learn? What items would they find in your garbage? What does it say about you? What are the most interesting and/or revealing artifacts that they would find? What are the challenges of someone using just this method to find out about you?