How to use Primary sources

One of the key skills history students must learn is how to use primary sources. A primary source can be a document, artwork, artifact, or oral—history interview, just so long as it tells us something about the past and is as close as we can get to the past. Primary sources are those sources created by people who participated in an event, witnessed it firsthand, or at least heard about it from a credible witness. Historians ask all manner of questions about primary sources. Here I have tried to group such questions into six larger categories, to suggest a means by which to approach an unfamiliar source.

1. What sort of source is this? What is the subject matter? When was it created? Who is the intended audience?

2. Why was this image cremwhat purpose does this image serve? Now begins the anal ‘s: Consider why this work was created. What has motivated the cartoonist to fins image? 3. What is the style? What impression does the artist intend to give viewers of the themes in this image? Provide examples from the work to support your observation.

4. What is the historical context? What was going on when this document was created? What events going on at this time might help us to better understand this source? Does the artist represent a particular perspective from this era? How might these circumstances help us understand this source? Be specific.

5. What is missing? What perspectives and information is not present in the source? How does this help us to better understand the perspective of the artist?

6. How does this source help us to better understand the era we are studying? In what ways does the political cartoon The Tournament of Today found in Chapter 16: Capital and Labor in the American Yawp Reader reveal political and economic concerns of the 18803?

According to the artist, whofwhat are the major players in these concerns? What OpiniOn might the artist have toward the labor movement?