1. Source enquiry skills; usefulness
Aim:
to understand that the value of a source depends on the enquiry
To be able to evaluate a source’s usefulness

2. Usefulness
How useful a source is depends are what you are trying to find out about.
For example a diary entry from Lister or Simpson might be useful in telling us how they made their development. But if the question is did other doctors accept their ideas it would be less useful.
Remember all sources are useful TO AN EXTENT.

3. Usefulness
The value of the source can be affected by how reliable it is, the nature of the source and it’s origins (who made it?)
Consider
What sort of information does the source give and how much does it apply to your enquiry?
Does the source have any added weight because of its origins or intentions? For example, does it come from someone whom was involved in the event? Is it an official source?
If the source gives you only one example, can you assume it is representative of the wider situation? For example, did all doctors feel the same way?

4. Usefulness
A reliable source is very useful to an historian because it can provide accurate details that can be used to provide an outline of events or to cross reference other sources.
Not all sources are reliable.
However, unreliable sources can still be useful in telling us about attitudes, so the historian needs to weigh up the strengths and limitations of a source every time it is used.

5. Usefulness
A diary comes from someone involved: he/she should know what happened but may exaggerate his/her own importance or describe events only from a personal point of view.
A newspaper headline may seem sensationalised or exaggerated in order to sell more copies, but the article should still include factual information and , most importantly help to us understand what people at the time were likely to be thinking.
A photograph shows the event as it happened, and very few photographs are faked or falsified, but most photographs have been taken from a particular angle or posed to create a certain impression.
A cartoon is likely to be a biased view point and will be exaggerated. However, for a cartoon to either make a serious point or to be humorous the audience will need to understand the subject. Therefore, cartoons can tell us something about people’s attitudes towards a person or event in the context of the time.

6. Summary
Sources are used in different ways depending on the focus of the historian’s enquiry.
All sources should be evaluated each time they are used.

7. Practice time
Study sources B and C: Which of these sources are more useful to the historian who is enquiring about developments in anaesthetics in the mid-19th century? 10 marks
Source C: from a speech by James Simpson to a meeting of doctors in Edinburgh in 1847
‘In years to come people will look back with sorrow at our reactions to anaesthetics. They will be amazed at the idea of humane men saying they prefer operating on patients who are conscious instead of anaesthetised, and that the fearful agonies of an operation should be endured quietly.’
Source B: Snow’s chloroform inhaler in 1848