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Primary Sources: A Research Guide

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Healey Library Statement on Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion

The Healey Library is committed to taking action and making changes as we identify them in order to improve the working and studying environment.

Primary Sources: A Research Guide

New York City, draft riots, 1863, from Harper's Weekly.

A few lines in a memoir, a snatch of recorded conversation, a letter fortuitously preserved, an event noted in a diary:  all become luminous with significance--even though these are just the bits that have floated to the surface.

Edmund Wilson, To the Finland Station; Forward


Scholars sometimes talk about primary and secondary sources, and for your assignments your professor may require you to consult and cite both kinds of sources.

Primary sources include firsthand, or original records, objects and evidence from the time period you are researching.

The secondary aspect of sources comes into play when there is interpretation, analysis, restatement of these same events or materials in order to explain them.

Primary Source Collections

Highlights from Healey

The University Archives and Special Collections Department is open to the public.

The Archives Research Room is located on the fifth floor of the Healey Library, and is open for research between 10:00-4:00 on weekdays.

It is recommended that you email library.archives@umb.edu or call (617) 287-5946 to make an appointment.

Healey Library | University of Massachusetts Boston | 100 Morrissey Blvd | Boston, MA | 02125-3393 | 617-287-5900