THIST 290: A World History of Food -- Sundermann: Primary Sources
What is a Primary Source
Primary sources include documents or artifacts created by a witness to or participant in an event. They can be firsthand testimony or evidence created during the time period that you are studying.
Primary sources may include diaries, letters, interviews, oral histories, photographs, newspaper articles, government documents, poems, novels, plays, and music. The collection and analysis of primary sources is central to historical research.
Note about primary sources: While there are many digital primary resources available, it is very important to remember that the majority of primary sources have not yet been digitized.
- The Books link in the navigation bar at the left provides information for locating primary sources via UW Libraries Search
- Under the Primary & Secondary Sources link in the navigation bar your find several options for locating these types of resources.
Primary Source Databases
- Food and Drink in History: Module II This link opens in a new windowThe materials in this collection illustrate the deep links between food and identity, politics and power, gender, race and socio-economic status, as well as charting key issues around agriculture, nutrition and food production.
- Feeding America: Cookbooks from the 18th-20th CenturiesFeeding America logo
Feeding America is an online collection of some of the most important and influential American cookbooks from the late 18th to early 20th century. The digital archive includes 76 cookbooks from the MSU Libraries' collection as well as searchable full-text transcriptions.