SCUA often uses the questions below to facilitate critical analysis of items.

Questions to Consider When Evaluating Primary Sources

• What is it?
• Who created it?
• When was it created?
• Who owned it?
• Who is the intended audience? Is it public or private?
• What surprises you? And why?
• What’s missing if anything?
• What questions does it lead you to ask?
• What other sources might you need to interpret your materials?

Questions for Evaluating Non-Written Primary Sources
from Mary Lynn Rampolla, A Pocket Guide to Writing in History, 6th ed. (Boston: Bedford, 2010)

For Photographs

• Who is the photographer? Why did he or she take this photograph?
• Where was the photograph first published or displayed? Did that publication or venue have a particular mission or point of view?
• Are there any obvious details such as angle, contrast, or cropping that suggest bias?

For Cartoons

• What is the message of the cartoon? How do words and images combine to convey that message?
• In what kind of publication did it originally appear (newspaper, magazine, etc.)? Did that publication have a particular agenda or mission?
• When did the cartoon appear? How might its historical context be significant?

For Artifacts

• When and where was the artifact made?
• Who might have used it, and what might it have been used for?
• What does the artifact tell us about the people who made and used it and the period in which it was made?