ARH 380 Kulpa: Primary Sources

About Primary Sources

• Primary sources are first-hand information
• They are sources as close as possible to the information you are studying

Examples of Primary Sources

• A work of art, itself, is a primary source
• Items written by the artist, such as journals, a diary, an autobiography and letters  
• Government documents
• Memoirs
• Oral histories
• Newspaper or magazine articles, written by someone who attended an opening, exhibition or talk by the artist are primary sources

Finding Primary Sources

• In the library catalog, try an author search for the artist - Ex: Jenny Holzer - 
• NY Times Historical Database - New York Times, Historical  Tip: Try filtering by Document type - Review in the facets on the left margin
• Other newspapers
• Artist's web presence
• Alma mater archives
• Clues/Bibliographies in Encyclopedia articles 
• Web search - artist's name +archives +sources 
• Interviews can be primary sources if they have not been edited.