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 Primary
Sources of Mormon History
The Mormon
experience has been well-documented since its inception. Of all the
religions which call America their birthplace, probably no other
surpasses Mormonism in the sheer volume of primary and secondary
sources. This section of Mormon Americana will examine some
Latter-day Saint primary sources and list the major repositories in
which these important documents may be found.
| Primary and
Secondary Sources |
The following are usually considered primary sources:
- Diaries, journals, speeches, interviews, letters, memos,
and manuscripts
- Records of organizations and agencies of government.
- Published materials (books, magazine and journal articles, newspaper articles) written at the time about a particular event.
- Photographs, audio recordings and moving pictures or video recordings, documenting what happened.
- Artifacts of all kinds
- Research reports in the sciences and social sciences.
The following are usually considered secondary sources:
- Works that interprets or analyzes an historical event or
phenomenon, generally at least one step removed from the event.
- Articles in scholarly journals
- Textbooks and encyclopedias
- Survey and interpretive history books (Source: click here.)
While most of the major repositories of Mormon Americana are
found in Utah, the headquarters of The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints, there are also major document collections in
California, in the heart of the Midwest, and on the East Coast. This
page discusses many of the of the important libraries
containing the primary sources of Mormonism.
There are a number of other organizations which promote Mormon
history and have collections of Mormon documents. Click here to find
out about some of these other collections
of Latter-day Saint history.
This page was created by Quinn Robinson
Any questions? Contact the Webmaster at mormonamericana@yahoo.com
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