Primary sources are the evidence of history, original records or objects created by participants or observers at the time historical events occurred or even well after events, as in memoirs and oral histories. Primary sources may include but are not limited to: letters, manuscripts, diaries, journals, newspapers, maps, speeches, interviews, documents produced by government agencies, photographs, audio or video recordings, born-digital items (e.g. emails), research data, and objects or artifacts (such as works of art or ancient roads, buildings, tools, and weapons). These sources serve as the raw materials historians use to interpret and analyze the past.
When choosing a topic for the photo essay assignment, your course texts and readings and even Google can provide initial inspiration. Consider your own interests, too, when making those initial search inquiries.
See below for list of e-books from UC Libraries that generally discuss the history of American education. Within them, you may discover your topic -- a unique moment, event, law, court action, legislation, etc. in history impacting education.
Considered secondary or tertiary sources, reference tools like those listed below can provide can provide background and context around a topic you're exploring. They can also point the way for more specific research -- and pave the way for selecting high-quality primary sources.
Credo Reference is a ready-reference solution for learners and librarians. Its full-text¸ aggregated content covers every major subject from the world's best publishers of reference materials. The content is enriched with images¸ sound files¸ maps and customizable data tables.
Coverage: varies
Specially commissioned essays from leading figures in multiple disciplines give critical examinations of the progress and direction of debates¸ as well as a foundation for future research. Oxford Handbooks provide scholars and graduate students with compelling new perspectives upon a wide range of subjects.Coverage: Current and Retrospective
The New York Times (1851-2020) offers full page and article images with searchable full text back to the first issue. The collection includes digital reproductions providing access to every page from every available issue. Supported by the Charles Phelps Taft Research Center. Coverage: 1851 - 2020
Nexis Uni™ features more than 15,000 news, business and legal sources
from LexisNexis®—including U.S. Supreme Court decisions dating back to
1790—with an intuitive interface that offers quick discovery across all
content types, personalization features such as Alerts and saved
searches and a collaborative workspace with shared folders and
annotated documents.
ERIC indexes education-related literature¸ beginning in 1966. The ERIC database is the world's largest source of education information, containing abstracts of documents and journal articles on education research and practice. The database covers descriptions and evaluations of programs, research reports and surveys, curriculum and teaching guides, instructional materials, position papers, and resource materials. In 1993, ERIC began indexing education-related books, including the output of major publishers. More recently it includes full-text non-journal documents (issued 1993-present). ERIC may be accessed directly at http://www.eric.ed.gov. To take advantage of many links to full-text documents through OhioLINK, use the connect below.
Coverage: 1966 - present
Digitized collections from the Library of Congress.
Collections that have not yet been migrated from the "American Memory" system can be found at http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html.
Materials Indexed includes: artworks, audio, government documents, images, magazine articles, maps, music recordings, pamphlets, photographs, Primary Sources
The New York Public Library Digital Gallery provides access to over 600¸000 images digitized from primary sources and printed rarities in the collections of the New York Public Library¸ including illuminated manuscripts¸ historical maps¸ vintage posters¸ rare prints and photographs¸ illustrated books¸ printed ephemera¸ and more.
