From: Tiffani Joseph
Date: 1/19/00
Time: 11:53:25 PM
Remote Name: 152.163.206.186
Historical records are documented materials from past events. They can be both huge and limited. Historical records are any sort of text or even an object that will show a historian a better picture in history. These records range from a person's diary to a stamp. At the same time most important issues that took place during the past were never documented or lost. Historical records are made up of two sources: a primary source and a secondary source. A primary source being one of which was actually present during the time where the event took place and a secondary source being a document that was printed after the event took place. A primary source can be either more or less reliable than a secondary source. Why is this so? A primary source such as a letter may only tell what the author perceived an event to be. This source therefore would be a one-sided opinion on a historical event. On the other hand this is a source directly taken from the event in occurence. Time and place are an essential characteristic to the qualityof a source; this is fulfilled by a primary source. There are four types of primary sources: published documents, unpublished documents, oral traditions/oral histories, and visual documents and artifacts. These are the types of primary sources used by historians. Many historians do use specific type in order to insure reliability. Whether these historical records come from a primary or secondary source they are valuable resource that gains us more knowledge about history.