Letters & Diaries

Historians value Personal texts Narrative or story-telling Democratic sources More candid Easier to relate to since they often

deal with everyday events

Using Letters & Diaries May be difficult to find

Most have not been saved Those in manuscript collections are unique – only 1

copy in existence May be difficult to read

Handwritten Language differences over time

May be difficult to use Usually organized just chronologically Not indexed Don’t really know if your topic is included until you’ve

read the complete collection

Published letters & diaries Only small percentage are ever

formally published Usually those of significant people May be incomplete or edited

Letters & diaries on the WWW May be buried in larger collections May be incomplete, excerpted or

transcribed

Your letter Transcribe at least the first

paragraph Scan through the rest What can you glean from the

document?

What can you glean from the document? What type of document is this? When was it written? What does the document tell us about the author?

Name? Age? Sex? Occupation? Location?

What sort of evidence does the document provide you about WWI?

About every day life About morale

What information would help you better understand the document?

Finding Published Collections of Letters &

Diaries and Other Primary Sources in the UW Libraries

Catalog

Using the catalog to find primary sources Author searches Date of publication Special subheadings added to a

keywords search

Authors Search for works written by key

people or key organizations related to your topic. Works best if you have a research topic

identified with particular people or organizations.• Author search in UW Libraries Catalog

• wilson woodrow• united states committee on public information

Dates Search for works published during

the time period you are researching. The UW Libraries has a strong collection

of books published during the 20th century.• Use the Keywords search and limit by

publication year.• Limit your search to books published between

1914 and 1920

Subheadings Search for works designated as

primary sources by catalogers. diaries, correspondence, personal

narratives, sources• Use the Keywords search and add these

special headings to your search.• world war 1914 and women and (diaries or

correspondence)• world war 1914 and soldiers and personal

narratives