FYS-101 (Campus) Information Literacy Lessons 2023-24
FYS101 Primary Source Collections
What are Primary Sources?
Primary sources are original records created at the time historical events occurred or well after events in the form of memoirs and oral histories. Primary sources may include letters, manuscripts, diaries, journals, newspapers, speeches, interviews, memoirs, documents produced by government agencies such as Congress or the Office of the President, audio recordings... video recordings, research data, and objects or artifacts such as works of art or ancient roads, buildings, tools, and weapons.
Taken from the American Library Association / Reference and User Services Association https://www.ala.org/rusa/sections/history/resources/primarysources
Primary Source Examples
![Newspaper Ad for reward for return of Oney Judge, escaped slave](https://libapps.s3.amazonaws.com/accounts/73631/images/Oney_Judge_Reward_Ad.jpg)
![Facebook post by Antiracist Activist & Author Ibram X. Kendi](https://libapps.s3.amazonaws.com/accounts/73631/images/Ibram_Kendi_post_for_Primary_Source_image.jpg)
![George Washington's dentures](https://libapps.s3.amazonaws.com/accounts/73631/images/George_Washington_s_Teeth.jpg)
![Ona Judge historical street sign](https://libapps.s3.amazonaws.com/accounts/73631/images/Ona_Judge_Street_sign.jpg)
How will we use Primary Sources in FYS?
In First Year Seminar (FYS101) you will be presented with Collections of primary sources that reflect topics connected by a common theme.
See the following Example Primary Source Collection:
The topics and primary sources for each topic for this Example Collection are:
- Topic: Fugitive Slave Ads - Newspaper ad This link opens in a new window from 1796 for fugitive slave Oney Judge
- Topic: Black Codes - Black Codes booklet This link opens in a new window which are Laws from the Jim Crow Era, 1865-1868
- Topic: Ida B. Wells & her efforts to end Jim Crow's targeting of Black people - A photo of Ida B. Wells-Barnett
- Topic: Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 - A political cartoon This link opens in a new window about the Anti-Drug Abuse Act's 100:1 crack/cocaine disparity & the racist impacts of the War on Drug’s mandatory minimum prison sentences, circa 2017
- Topic: Disproportionate incarceration rates of Black people - A chart This link opens in a new window showing statistics of incarceration rates for Black people, 2020
Primary sources are original documents (photos, documents, artifacts, letters, artworks, etc.) usually created at the time of an event.
Final Project
For your Final Project in FYS101, you and a team of your peers will select one of the "Primary Source Collections" below to research. As an individual, you will research one of the five primary sources in the Collection. Together, your team will bring together your research on all five of the primary sources in your Collection and present your knowledge to the class at the end of the semester in an Expert Panel Presentation.
Choose a Collection
Scroll through the Collections below, paying attention to each Collection's theme and description. Notice which Collection themes and/or primary sources capture your attention and interest most. You don't need to research any of these Collections now. At this point, you just want to assess which Collections most spark your interest. (To see a larger version of any individual source on a collection card, click on the card below, and open the folder and select the source you would like to see larger.)
Choose five Collections you find the most interesting and check them off on the Primary Source Collection Selection Form (at the bottom of the Collection images below) and upload to the assignment in Brightspace.
Personal Property
- Topic: Partus sequitur ventrem: Colonial law prompted by Elizabeth Key's lawsuit, 1662 - Primary Source: VA General Assembly Act, 1662 reversing the status of a child to be determined by the mother
- Topic: History of the word "wench" used for female slaves - Primary Source: Slave-for-Sale Ad, 1789 This link opens in a new window
- Topic: Thomas Jefferson & Sally Hemings controversy - Primary Source: Political Cartoon 1804his link opens in a new window
- Topic: Rosa Parks & her campaign to end sexual violence - Primary Source: Photo of Parks with sexual assault survivor Recy TaylorThis link opens in a new window in Detroit,1947
- Topic: Sex trafficking by race & gender - Primary Source: Statistic, 2020 s link opens in a new window
Maid in America
- Topic: Living conditions of "house slaves" - Primary Source: Photo of bell to call house slaves at Mount Vernon, 1780s.
- Topic: Social Security Act This link opens in a new window - Primary Source: Poster of SS benefits excluding domestics, 1936
- Topic: The "Mammy" stereotype - Primary Source: Aunt Jemima Advertisement 1940 This link opens in a new window
- Topic: Dorothy Lee Bolden and her advocacy for domestic laborers - Primary Source: Photo of Maid's Honor Day, 1970 ink opens in a new window
- Topic: Labor conditions of domestic workers by Race - Primary Source: Race & benefits Statistics, 2018
America's Game
- Topic: Thomas Jefferson's view on Black intellect: Primary Source: Book Notes on the State of Virginia 1785 (See p. 266)
- Topic: Fritz Pollard & his legacies in football and beyond - Primary Source: Photo of Pollard, college football & NFL pioneer, 1919This link opens in a new window
- Topic: NFL Ban on Black Player - Primary Source: Newspaper photo of NFL owners, 1933 This link opens in a new window
- Topic: NFL Race Norming - Primary Source: Cognitive test, 2017 This link opens in a new window
- Topic: Racial disparity between NFL players and management - Primary Source: Statistic, 2020 This link opens in a new window
Skin Deep
- Topic: Light skin privilege during slavery - Primary Source: Painting of Washington & Lee, circa 1780 This link opens in a new window
- Topic: Paper Bag Test - Primary Source: Program photo of “Copper Colored Gals” at the Cotton Club, circa 1923-1940 This link opens in a new window
- Topic: White beauty standards and skin lightening - Primary Source: Nadinola advertisement, circa 1950s This link opens in a new window
- Topic: Kwame Brathwaite & the “Black is Beautiful” campaign - Primary Source: Photo- Kwame Brathwaite self portrait, 1964
- Topic: Impact of skin tone on income & work - Primary Source: Mean income by skin tone & gender Statistic, 2020
Common Knowledge
- Topic: New York Manumission Society's African Free School - Primary Source: Engraving by a student, 1830
- Topic: Kenneth & Mamie Clark & "The Doll Test" - Primary Source: Photo by Gordon Parks for Ebony Magazine, 1947
- Topic: Freedom Schools - Primary Source: Freedom Schools Movement, 1964
- Topic: Boston Anti-busing Movement - Primary Source: Photo by Stanley Forman of school integration riots, 1976This link opens in a new window
- Topic: Economic disparities in school district funding - Primary Source: Statistic on school funding in non-White & White communities, 2019
Malpractice
- Topic: African burial grounds & the struggle to respect the dead. Primary Source: NYC African Burial Ground This link opens in a new window site drawing, 1790.
- Topic: Richard Allen & Absalom Jones who defended Black people during the Yellow Fever epidemic This link opens in a new window Primary Source: Publication from 1794
- Topic: Enslaved women in early gynecology Primary Source: Illustration (circa 1952) of J. Marion Sim's research done in the 1840s This link opens in a new window
- Topic: Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment (1932-1972) This link opens in a new window: Primary Source: Photo of government funded research, 1932-1972 depicting nurses & doctors inoculating Black men.
- Topic: Health disparities by race: Primary Source: Statistic on Health and Health Care for Black People in the U.S.
Equity & Exclusion
- Topic: Living conditions for slaves at Mt. Vernon. Primary Source: Photo of Greenhouse Slave Quarters reconstructed to reflect original from 1787 This link opens in a new window
- Topic: Redlining. Primary Source: Homeowner's Loan Corporation (HOLC) map Philadelphia, 1930
- Topic: Levittown, NY. Primary Source: Photo of federally funded housing for White homeowners in Levittown NY, 1954 This link opens in a new window
- Topic: Martin Luther King, Jr. who marched for fair housing in the Chicago Freedom Movement. Primary Source: Photo, 1966 This link opens in a new window
- Topic: Home Ownership by Race. Primary Source: Statistic, 2003-2020 This link opens in a new window
White Lies
- Topic: Carter Woodson, founder of the Association for the Study of Negro Life & History to include black history in textbooks. Primary Source: Photo, 1910 This link opens in a new window
- Topic: Primary Source: A Measuring Rod to Test Books…: Cover of publication by Mildred Lewis Rutherford, 1919 This link opens in a new window
- Topic: Virginia History & Textbook Commission. Primary Source: Textbook promoting the “lost cause” narrative, 1957 This link opens in a new window
- Topic: San Francisco State College Strike. Primary Source: Photo of protester being arrested during campus strike to establish Black Studies department, 1968 This link opens in a new window
- Topic: State efforts to restrict teaching about racism. Primary Source: Infographic, 2023This link opens in a new window
Debts of Service
- Topic: Prince Whipple. Primary Source: Photo of Headstone, 1796 This link opens in a new window.
- Topic: 54th Regiment's service & activism. Primary Source: Recruitment poster offering wages to meet demands for justice, 1864 This link opens in a new window
- Topic: Harlem Hellfighters Primary Source: Photo, 1919 This link opens in a new window
- Topic: Double V Campaign. Primary Source: Logo, 1942 This link opens in a new window
- Topic: Black veteran injury rates. Primary Source: Statistic, 2020 This link opens in a new window
Right of Passage
- Topic: Freedom Papers This link opens in a new window: Primary Source: Photo of documents in a tin box, 1852.
- Topic: Homer Plessy, activist & plaintiff in Homer vs. Plessy. Primary Source: Marker (2009) on site of Homer Plessy's arrest 1892. (There are no known portraits of Plessy)
- Topic: The Negro Motorist Green Book. Primary Source: Travel guidebook, 1940
- Topic: Sundown Towns.This link opens in a new window Primary Source: Sign possibly from Connecticut, circa 1950
- Topic: Black people disproportionately stopped by police. Primary Source: Statistic (potential racial profiling?), 2015.
Purchasing Power
- Topic: William Custis Costin. Primary Source: Portrait, 1805.This link opens in a new window
- Topic: St. Luke Penny Savings Bank: Primary Source: Photo of bank serving the Black community, Richmond, Virginia 1903.
- Topic: Black Wall Street This link opens in a new window Primary Source: Photo of the site (circa 1930s-40s) after the Tulsa Massacre.
- Topic: Black owned bookstores in the Black Power Movement. Primary Source: Cover of Drum & Spear BookstoreThis link opens in a new window catalog,1971.
- Topic: Impact of COVID on business owners by race & ethnicity. Primary Source: Statistic, 2020.This link opens in a new window
- Updated version of same statistics The Impact of COVID-19 on Small Business Owners: The First Three Months after Social-distancing Restrictions This link opens in a new window by Robert W. Fairlie, Working Paper 27462
Once you have closely viewed the Collections above, download the Primary Source Collection Selection Form below and select the five Collections that most interest you and submit to Brightspace.
Spring 24 Primary Source Collections
Scan this QR code or go directly to the Collection Cards slidesThis link opens in a new window. Topics and/or Primary Sources have embedded links to leading to an overview source that explains each topic/primary source.