What is a Primary Source?
Primary sources are materials directly related to a topic by time or participation. These materials include letters, speeches, diaries, newspaper articles from the time, oral history interviews, documents, photographs, artifacts, or anything else that provides first-hand accounts about a person, place, thing, or event.
Image to right, is a scan of an original invitation to a Leap Year social in 1896. Original is from the True family records. This is considered a primary source document.
A few examples of primary sources are vital records, contemporary newspaper and magazine articles, ephemera,* personal letters, diaries, photographs, and artifacts.**
A good example of a primary source might be a July 1924 newspaper clipping about the July 6,1924 meteorite shower that fell on Mead and Johnstown. Especially if it includes eye witness accounts of the "rocks falling out of the sky." Other primary sources might include entries in a personal journal or diary by a person who witnessed them falling, interviewing someone who is still alive who witnessed and remembers the event, or perhaps the transcript from a radio broadcast.
An example of what is not a primary source, might be the Johnstown Breeze October 7, 1999 article, talking about the Denver Museum of Natural History (now named the Museum of Arts and Sciences), coming to Mead and Johnstown to learn more about the meteorite shower. While clues to primary sources might be found in that article, it is not a contemporary account of the actual event.
Be careful not to take a quote out of a secondary source and use it as a primary source. An example might be if you use the book, "Out of the Sky," by Harvey Nininger published in 1952 (long out of print). In this book Nininger quotes several primary sources, including historical accounts. However, the author of the book has individually selected the quotes he used from the original sources. Without seeing the original source for yourself, you don't know if the quotation in question is taken out of context, what else was in the source, or even what the context was. If you use this book, or quotes from it, they should be listed as a secondary sources.
sources can be found at:
- The Mead Town Hall Records
- Historic Highlandlake, Historical Society, St. Vrain Historical Society (Longmont), and the Berthoud Historical Society.
- Museums, such as the Longmont Museum and Cultural Center's archives, as well as other regional museums, such as the Berthoud and Platteville museums. All of these museums have information, artifacts and documents relating to Mead's history. You may find other museums and historical societies in the area that also have primary and secondary sources.
- Colorado State Archives
- St. Vrain Valley School District archives as well as each individual school's archives.
- Historic Mead area churches (Guardian Angels Catholic Church, Mead United Methodist
- Community Groups
- Community residents, including family members who lived in the Mead area who have first-hand knowledge of the person, place, thing, or event you are writing about.
- Longmont Library. This library has the early Longmont newspapers on microfiche.
- Colorado Historic Newspapers (online)
*Ephemera are generally things that are printed for a specific occasion or purpose and are not meant to last after their original use. Examples are: theatre programs, posters for events, ticket stubs, political leaflets, and bumper stickers.
**Artifacts are human-made or human-designed objects that can be used to understand something about the people, institutions, or cultures of the past.
For example, if you want to know more about the Maxwell car dealership that flourished in Mead during the early part of the 20th century, you may want to explore the Dougherty Car Museum south of Longmont to see the actual cars. Other examples are contemporary photos, coins, items of clothing, tools, commemorative plaques, and furniture.
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This page was updated on November 12, 2009