Summary
Finding information about the past in primary sources involves interpretation. It means asking a series of questions about the film, photograph or video being used. Answering many of these questions will require reference to secondary sources. At all stages of the process it is important to maintain a critical distance from the primary source and not assume the meaning or truthfulness of the item is self-evident. There is almost always a more complex story behind the evidence which it is the historian’s task to uncover.

References

• Angela V. John By the Sweat of Their Brows. Women Workers at Victorian Coal Mines, RKP, London 1984
• Arthur Marwick The New Nature of History: Knowledge, Evidence, Language, Palgrave Macmillan, 2001

Approaches to historical study

• Arthur Marwick, ‘The Fundamentals of History’

Use of Primary Sources

• The Library Of Congress: What Are Primary Sources?
• Saratoga High School: Analysis of Primary Sources
• The University of Auckland Library: Historical Primary Sources - A Guide
• University of Washington Libraries: Primary Sources
• Western Libraries: Primary Source Research

Film History:

• Academic Info: Film History [Contains links to many journals and other online resources]
• Online library catalogue for the University of Berkeley
• World Wide Web Virtual Library: Film History Index
• Digital History: Hollywood's America

Photography and history:

• Robert Leggat's Home Page: A History of Photography
• Midley History of Photography: R. Derek Wood’s articles on the early History of Photography, the Daguerreotype and Diorama
• Dictionary of Victorian London: Social History
• Hidden Lives Revealed: Children in Care 1881-1918 An interesting site that uses photography to illustrate a social history of the late Victorian and Edwardian Britain

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