#primary-sources — Public Fediverse posts

Interesting article and a warning: AI is an anti primary source machine

"if history is to retain its distinctive character as a discipline, we need to redouble our efforts to teach the potential of primary documents to yield novel answers that AI’s probabilistic approach cannot."

https://www.hnn.us/article/ai-is-an-anti-primary-source-machine

#AI #History #PrimarySources

Edinburgh Evening News: Palestinian lawyer’s diary saved from risk of destruction by Edinburgh university. “Through an estimated five million words, Raja Shehadeh has chronicled more than six decades of daily life in Palestine, spanning almost 60 years from 1967 when he was 15 years old. Alongside the diaries, his archive includes original copies of military orders, issued following the […]

BalkanInsight: ‘This Is How We Lived Here’: Documenting 16 Years in Hungary Under Orban. “Essentially an oral history archive, the husband-and-wife team are currently conducting personal interviews with people who have registered to share their stories. It’s a meticulous exercise. So far, they have received more than 240 submissions and conducted 54 interviews, but their target is at […]

BBC: Shipbuilding archive aims to preserve memories. “…people across north-east England have been asked to sit down with loved ones who once worked in the shipyards to contribute to the Shipyard Heritage Museum’s online living archive. The archive is open to stories from the rivers Tyne, Wear and Tees.”

The Quotation’s Chain of Custody

https://bolesblogs.com/2026/08/14/the-quotations-chain-of-custody/

ABC News (Australia): Goldfields diary of young Englishman uncovered after 115 years. “A six-month joint effort between historical societies from opposite sides of the world has recently solved the mystery of a century-old diary. The diary of Gordon Howard Tilly tells the story of a young engineer’s time in Kalgoorlie-Boulder in intricate detail. Its transcript is now available at the Eastern […]

Billboard: Belmont University to House Johnny Cash’s Personal Archives. “A partnership among the Cash family, the John R. Cash Revocable Trust and Belmont University allows the collection to serve as the anchor for the new Johnny Cash Learning Center at Belmont’s Mike Curb College of Entertainment & Music Business’s upcoming Music Row-located building. The collection is from the late […]

Camboja News: Kem Ley Archive Unveils Unpublished Writings Decade After His Killing. “A digital archive containing tens of thousands of speeches, handwritten notes and research by slain government critic Kem Ley will be released on Saturday, a day after supporters marked 10 years since he was gunned down in broad daylight in Phnom Penh. Dozens gathered at the Caltex gas station in the capital […]

Yet another example of the value of primary sources, whose study and publication must be the first duty of professional historians.
And it's hard and often unsung work.

«"My whole experience of working with the akhbarat has been one big eureka moment after another!," Faruqui [a historian of Mughal India] told me. "It never ceases to amaze me how the density of the informational ecosystem was at the time".

The news reports Faruqui studied were written for the Raja of Jaipur. Hundreds of other nobles, princes and officials likely received similar reports from agents across the empire, forming one of the early modern world's most sophisticated information networks.

...

With no index and tens of thousands of entries, the archive demands patience, stamina and a willingness to read page after page in search of patterns and relevant information.
...
Early in his career, [Faruqui] spent seven frustrating weeks wrestling with another vast Mughal archive before abandoning it. The experience left him wary of sprawling, unindexed collections for nearly a decade.»

BBC article:
Aurangzeb's akhbarat: The empire that ran on news reports - and what they reveal about Mughal India
<https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1dy5y3y2g3o>

#Archives
#History
#InformationNetworks
#InformationStructures
#PrimarySources

Troy University: It Came from the Archives: The World War 2 letters of Earl and Ruth Barker.. “Kelly Reeves from the Troy University Library shares a collection of correspondence and photographs recently digitized and made available at this link: Barker Collection of WWII Letters – Troy University Archives. The collection’s 257 handwritten letters and 84 ‘V-Mails’ (all transcribed) traces […]

The Hill: Detailing D-Day, 30-cent haircuts and military life: USO unveils digital collection of letters from WWII soldier. “There are more than 300 letters in the collection launched Wednesday by the USO. The notes were written by U.S. Army private Louis ‘Speedy’ Weber to his wife, Frances, while he was serving on the frontlines in Europe between 1942 and 1945.”

Suetonius is a great source! Just keep a pinch of salt handy.

https://piefed.social/c/historymemes/p/2030702/suetonius-is-a-great-source-just-keep-a-pinch-of-salt-handy

Suetonius is a great source! Just keep a pinch of salt handy.

https://piefed.social/c/roughromanmemes/p/2030700/suetonius-is-a-great-source-just-keep-a-pinch-of-salt-handy

Ms. Magazine: A Public Syllabus on Feminist Resistance Across U.S. History: Books, Films, Archives and Tools to Rethink America’s Origins. “The multimedia syllabus curated below spans the Revolutionary era and the long afterlife of feminist resistance—from the 19th century to the present. It includes works by series authors, books and articles, podcasts, films and television, primary-source […]

State of Hawaii: DAGS Receives Rare, Important War History Artifacts. “The 100th Infantry Battalion Veterans Educations Center, also known as Club 100, on Friday donated a packet of correspondence to the DAGS division Hawaiʻi State Archives…. There are 111 of these so-called Turner Letters written between 1944 and 1945. They spell out in great detail the conditions of the war, the impact […]

Library of Congress: Resources for African American History Month: Primary Source Sets. “During the month of February, Teaching with the Library will spotlight different resources that support teaching and learning about the achievements and contributions of African Americans throughout U.S. history. This post highlights several primary source sets that teachers may want to incorporate into […]

Search Engine Land: Google launches more visible links in AI Overviews and AI Mode. “Google is rolling out new, more visible links within AI Overviews and AI Mode. These new link cards appear in a pop-up window when you hover over them on desktop. They also show more prominent details about the website.”

you go on and off for years to improve your reading skills of #Kurrent / #Sütterlin, even trying to adopt the latter as your "secret" handwriting and then: first comes #AI and seems to make all of it redundant as #HTR improves incredibly; then you go to an exhibition at #DHMBerlin and discover that to read #OttovonBismarck (or his secretary) it was all useless in the first place as he seems to have written in a nice, simple #Lateinschrift

#archives #primarySources #histodons #HistodonsDE

Lafayette College: Largest known collection of Lafayette/Washington letters now available digitally . “After years of meticulous work, Special Collections & College Archives has completed the digitization of 201 letters written by the Marquis de Lafayette to George Washington between 1777 and 1792, one of the most important quill-pal relationships from early America. The digital collection can […]

University of Virginia: Gamechanger: Can AI accurately transcribe primary source documents?. “Transcribing primary source documents is time-consuming and requires expertise in deciphering handwriting, recognizing antiquated spelling and abbreviations, and understanding obsolete punctuation, letters, and symbols. Equally important is having a grasp of the historical context of the document being […]

One Source, Multiple Versions, Many Perspectives: Teaching Key Documents in U.S. History – Teaching with the Library

Teaching with the Library Primary Sources & Ideas for Educators

ISSN 2691-6916

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1. One Source, Multiple Versions, Many Perspectives: Teaching Key Documents in U.S. History

One Source, Multiple Versions, Many Perspectives: Teaching Key Documents in U.S. History

Posted by: Colleen Smith, January 27, 2026

This blog post is by Lee Ann Potter, director of Professional Learning and Outreach Initiatives at the Library of Congress. 

At the recent annual meeting of the American Historical Association (AHA) in Chicago, I presented a K-16 teacher workshop titled “Revolutionary History Teaching.”  As the title suggested, I engaged participants with primary sources and teaching strategies related to the American Revolution.

To introduce an activity focused on the Declaration of Independence, I asked the participating teachers if they invited their students to read the founding document.  They all said yes, doing so was part of their regular approach in both history and civics classes.

“Which version?” I asked, to which I received few responses and many quizzical looks.

I proceeded to divide the teachers into smaller groups and provided each with a facsimile of a different version of the Declaration. The versions I shared included:

• Thomas Jefferson’s “original Rough draught” of the Declaration of Independence, written in June 1776, including all the changes made later by John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and other members of the committee, and by Congress. I included Professor Julian Boyd’s reconstruction of it.
• The Dunlap Broadside, the first printed version of the American Declaration of Independence.
• The Pennsylvania Evening Post, July 6, 1776 (page 1), the first newspaper printing of the Declaration.
• The Goddard Broadside, Printed by Mary Katharine Goddard, in Baltimore, MD, 1777.
• The Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789, Volume 5, pages 509-518 (that focus on July 4, 1776).

I encouraged the teachers to read their versions, to consider their students’ capabilities and background knowledge, as well as their course objectives, and to discuss within their small groups the associated pros and cons of inviting students to read their version rather than simply the document’s text.

Then we engaged in a larger group discussion about each version.  The group with The Pennsylvania Evening Post was particularly interested in the advertisements that also ran in the edition and discussed how news was shared and spread in the 1770s; the group with the Dunlap Broadside also discussed the sharing of information and noted that the names of most of the delegates to the Second Continental Congress were missing, but they were present on the Goddard Broadside; the Goddard Broadside also prompted curiosity about Mary Katharine Goddard; those reading the rough draft commented on the value of sharing rough drafts with students and suggested that the section related to slavery, that was not included in the final document, would be of particular interest to their students; and the Journal was described as providing an interesting play-by-play of the document and other events and issues from the perspective of Congress.

Our conclusion after a rich discussion: Sharing multiple versions of the Declaration with students may encourage knowledge of its contents to transform into curiosity about its context.

Have you tried a similar approach with other seminal documents?  If so, what have the results been? Please share your experience in the comments!

Do you enjoy these posts? Subscribe! You’ll receive free teaching ideas and primary sources from the Library of Congress.

Categories

• Constitution
• Lesson Ideas
• Revolution and the New Nation (1764-1815)
• Teaching Strategies

Continue/Read Original Article Here: One Source, Multiple Versions, Many Perspectives: Teaching Key Documents in U.S. History | Teaching with the Library

Lot of interesting sources on NDL online collections are embedded in scanned US occupation period files. Example: the 日満支 工業年鑑 for 昭和15 is only available as part of evidence for war crimes trials here: https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/12922208/1/4 while elsewhere only up to 昭和13 (https://dl.ndl.go.jp/ja/pid/1115528) #japan #primarysources #asianists

Paleontology, Past and Present: A New Primary Source Set for Educators – Teaching with the Library

Teaching with the Library Primary Sources & Ideas for Educators, ISSN 2691-6916

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2. Paleontology, Past and Present: A New Primary Source Set for Educators

Paleontology, Past and Present: A New Primary Source Set for Educators

November 20, 2025, Posted by: Colleen Smith

This post is by Jessica Fries-Gaither, a 2024-2025 Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellow at the Library of Congress.

Primary sources are excellent tools for conveying the nature and practices of science. By providing a firsthand look at the types of questions scientists pose as well as the methods and strategies they employ to answer them, primary sources humanize the scientific endeavor in ways that other materials cannot. And there may be no scientific discipline better suited to such an “inside look” than paleontology. The study of fossilized remains and what they can teach us about Earth’s history is rife with uncertainty, incomplete data sets, and an ever-evolving understanding of the subject.

A new primary source set from the Library of Congress features 18 primary sources that teachers can use to bring forward the nature of science while also addressing science content standards about paleontology, the fossil record, and geologic time. Through close looking and thoughtful analysis of these items, students can learn about significant paleontological discoveries and practice the types of thinking and questioning employed by professional paleontologists.

The set includes primary sources in diverse formats (photographs, drawings and engravings, newspaper articles, maps, diagrams, and even a piece of congressional legislation) spanning the early years of paleontology to present day. Dig in and discover:

• newspaper accounts recounting major discoveries, including Tyrannosaurus rex and fossilized dinosaur eggs!
• engravings of petrified wood and fossil skulls from Robert Hooke’s Micrographia and Charles Darwin’s Voyage on the H.M.S. Beagle.
• photographs showing how fossil remains are discovered in the field, as well as how skeletons are constructed and displayed.
• maps sharing the distributions of rocks and fossils from different geologic time periods.

The Paleontology, Past and Present primary source set also includes background information, teaching suggestions, and links for additional information and primary sources. We hope that you and your students will find it to be a helpful resource!

Categories

• Primary Source Highlights
• Science Technology and Math

Continue/Read Original Article Here: Paleontology, Past and Present: A New Primary Source Set for Educators | Teaching with the Library

#colleenSmith #educators #libraryOfCongress #libraryOfCongressBlog #paleontology #past #present #primarySourceSet #primarySources #teachingWithTheLibrary

The Wire: New Smartphone-Friendly Nehru Archive Goes Live. “…the platform offers an easily searchable and freely downloadable collection initially centred on the 100 published volumes of the Selected Works of [Jawaharlal] Nehru, covering the years 1903 to 1964. The Nehru archive currently hosts more than 75,000 pages and over 3,000 illustrations.”

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/11/21/the-wire-new-smartphone-friendly-nehru-archive-goes-live/

Yale Library: Beinecke Library acquires Sylvia Plath family papers. “The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library has acquired a significant archive documenting the life and work of American poet Sylvia Plath. The Plath Family Papers document Plath’s relationships with family members, especially her mother Aurelia and brother Warren, and the publication and reception of her work after her […]

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/11/08/yale-library-beinecke-library-acquires-sylvia-plath-family-papers/

Our Discussion Guide for this short documentary (under 60 minutes) is a great tool for teaching about:

- The power of laughter in difficult times
- Media literacy: Hollywood and the US government's relationship
- Ways to contribute using your own unique skills
- The power of archiving: through the letters Hope's secretary saved
- Using the Library of Congress and primary sources for learning

https://journeysinfilm.org/film/miles-morale-and-memories-bob-hope-in-world-war-ii/?utm_source=Mastodon&utm_medium=Social+Media&utm_campaign=WWII+Foundation+Launch&utm_content=Thread+Link

2/2

#MentalWellness #MediaLiteracy #Goals #PrimarySources #Archives #Movies

Mount Desert Islander: Epp and the Jesup unveil Creating Acadia National Park Research Archive. “After more than a decade of preparation, a digital collection of 30,000 primary documents related to the creation of Acadia National Park is now available to the public through the History Trust as the Creating Acadia National Park Research Archive.”

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/11/02/mount-desert-islander-epp-and-the-jesup-unveil-creating-acadia-national-park-research-archive/

WKYT: Civil War soldier’s letters to wife digitized for online viewing. “More than 100 Civil War-era letters written by a Union Army soldier to his wife have been digitized and made available online through a new website created by the Cynthiana-Harrison County Museum. The letters were penned by William Bosler Jones, a Union Army soldier from Northern Kentucky, and his bride Mary Phillips […]

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/11/01/wkyt-civil-war-soldiers-letters-to-wife-digitized-for-online-viewing/

I added a section to our Frog in a Well Primary Source guide to Korean History with some links to open access copies of volumes with Japanese statistics from colonial Korea - https://froginawell.net/frog/sources/primary-sources-modern-korean-history/#japanese #japan #korea #primarysources #histodons #asianists