Primary sources are "voices from the past"-material from the time that is being studied, not filtered or interpreted by others. Such sources include letters (personal or formal), photographs and drawings, diaries and journals, trial transcripts, newspapers, flyers and posters, reports, government documents and oral histories. Primary sources make history come alive, but more importantly, they distinguish a History Fair project from a mere "report." Students must find primary sources, critically "listen" to those voices, and form their own conclusions based on the evidence. The wider and deeper a student goes into primary sources the more she/he will grasp their subject and gain credibility as a historian.

"Joining the conversation" is an important part of doing history.
Secondary sources are books, documentaries, and magazine, newspaper, or professional journal articles written by historians and other writers who analyzed primary sources, studied others' arguments, and then formed their own understanding and conclusions of a historical question. Secondary sources are crucial to a History Fair project and should be given the most attention in the first phase of research and reading. All historians spend time with secondary sources; they see their own work as "joining the conversation"-building on other's ideas and offering new ways to understand a topic. History Fair encourages students to develop their own original ideas-but students can only do so if they know what's been written already.

First steps to locating key secondary sources:

1. Check reference works, such as the Encyclopedia of Chicago or Women Building Chicago. Often, key sources are offered by the authors at the end of the entry.

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