Constitution
Constitution text
Documents that show the framers' (or ratifiers') intent, including:

• speeches and writings of early American statesmen
• records of the Federal Convention
• records of state debates on ratification
• the Federalist Papers (Hamilton, Madison & Jay)
• writings of the Anti federalists
• contemporary accounts in newspapers

Legislative Branch
Laws
Documents emerging from the legislative process:

• drafts and differing versions of bills
• House & Senate Committee Hearings
• House & Senate Committee Reports (Serial Set)
• floor debate (Congressional Record)
• Conference Committee reports

Judicial Branch
Court Opinions/Decisions interpreting law
Briefs submitted by the parties
Oral arguments

Supreme Court

Executive Branch
Presidential signing statements
Executive Orders & Proclamations
Regulations and documents coming out of rulemaking procedures
Opinions of the Attorney General

Primary sources

• a first-hand account by a participant or observer close to the time of the event, as reported in an article, diary, journal, speech, interview, letter, e-mail, memorandum, or autobiography.
• an original work of art or literature
• visual images and/or audio recordings of an event
• old maps
• original research or raw data, including public opinion polls
• a government document that is produced in the normal course of governing (a law, congressional hearing, treaty, regulation or court decision) and those that record an event (birth certificate), report data collected by the government (the census), or confer a right (a permit, license or patent).
• records produced by organizations in the normal course of doing business
• a laboratory report or field observation, including an ethnography
• artifacts of any kind

Secondary Sources

• an analytical article or book about an event, including textbooks and encyclopedias
• an editorial
• a biography
• a documentary or reenactment
• reviews or literary criticism
• an article that describes or analyzes a third parties' research results
• a government report that analyzes events after-the-fact, relying on evidence collected or documents generated at the time of the event.  For example: United States.  National Aeronautics and Space Administration Office of Policy and Plans. Report of the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident.  1986.
• a law review article or treatise on the law
• an interest group report criticizing the government's statistical analysis of census data
• a report examining the commercial viability of a particular enterprise by a consultant
• an article describing and analyzing the results of a third parties' work.

Many of our primary sources are reproductions or transcriptions of original documents or manuscripts, and you can find them in the catalog.

Do an author search. Use names of "key players" and enter them last name, first name

The following words often appear in the subject headings for primary sources:

• sources
• correspondence
• diaries
• journals
• interviews

You can include these terms in a keyword search, or do a subject search and use these words to Limit Search by "Words in SUBJECT"