When I think of "primary" and "secondary" sources, my mind goes directly to museums. To understand why my mind thinks of museums you have to know what "primary", and "secondary" sources mean:
Primary Sources:
- The "first" source (actual source)
- You have to have a primary source to make a historical assumption
- Examples.) Letter, Contract, Photo, Interview, Diary, Original Video (from original source)
Secondary Sources:
- These are the ones that we use (in school)
- Examples.) Textbook's, You Tube Video, Book's, Film's
Can Create a Secondary Source From...
- Connecting primary sources
- Looking at other secondary sources
- Gathering information from primary, and secondary sources
When Looking At Sources: (This is what workers from Pawn Stars has to do ;))
- Trust the source of information.
- Do they look authentic?
- Are the people who are writing qualified to write?
- Is the story biased?
- Was there any editing/staging done to make the photos/videos look a certain way?
Museums
Definition:A building where historical, scientific, artistic, or cultural interest are kept and exhibited.
Why do we have museums?
Museums come in all different shapes, and sizes, and are located all over the world. There are a whole bunch of different types of museums. Some are: fine arts, applied arts, craft, history, cultural history, military history, science, technology, children's museums, natural history...and more. Even though there are a lot of different types of museums, they all have the same intentions. There intentions are to share information about the past. Each type of museum distributes there information in there own way, even though there are a few things that they have in common. Some of the things that they have in common are that they all have sources, whether they are primary or secondary. Some museums have primary sources, others have secondary sources, and some have a mix of both. The most common source that you would see in an museum would be a secondary source. The reason is that there can only be one primary source for something, but a whole bunch on replicas of an artifact (primary). Another reason why it is not common for a museum to have secondary sources and not primary sources is that primary sources are very expensive. In fact if you were going to by the famous painting call "the Mona Lisa" then you would have to bring at least 780 million dollars with you.
What types of things are in a museum?
All of the things that go into a museum have to be significantThe significance of history depends on:
- If it was important at the time? If so, how important was it?
- If the consequences widespread and lasting?
- How much did the event symbolise an important issue or trend?
- Who it was important to?
Now that you know what primary and secondary sources, and museums are...
Now that you know what primary and secondary sources, and museums are you now should be able to understand why I think of museums when I hear those words.In every single museum there has to be either primary sources (the original artifact); secondary sources (a replica of the original artifact); or both. If does not have any of those it is not a museum.
Nice Pawn Star's Reference. Museums are an interesting thought when it comes to primary and secondary sources. There are so many different things and ways things are shown. When I read your definitions I think of conversations and Mrs. Neuman (videos). When you have a conversation it is a primary source because you hear it directly from the person. Videos are secondary sources because the are not original. They might feature primary sources but the video itself is just clips or images of primary sources. Museums are full of both sources. The Human Rights Museum has both original copies of things like contracts, and copies of them. That museum trip was so fun and it was interesting to see all the different aspects that people interoperate things. Museums do offer items and ideas of the past but they also have predictions for the past and things from the present. Did you know that museum cost 352 million dollars to build in total? (other facts like this @ https://humanrights.ca/sites/default/files/attachments/facts_about_the_museum.pdf). Not all museums have the intention to share things from the past. There are things like modern art museums that don't offer views from the past. Some art museums have art from ancient times though, that you can use to compare and contrast with how it used to be done. Nice blog post.
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ReplyDeleteI totally agree with the museum connection with the words Primary and Secondary sources. These words also make me think about investigators, and crime scene shows. I find the process of figuring out between Primary and Secondary sources very interesting, like discovering a mystery. You can uncover a whole new story by determining whether or not your sources are Primary or Secondary. Another thing that comes to mind is the diary of Anne Frank, and how her actual diary is in the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam, and a secondary version written by her father has sold millions of copies around the world. Which I find very good to do, not all secondary sources can be bad. turning something into an educational book or documentaries help a lot of people and students learn. Here's Otto Franke talking about Anne's diary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWRBinP7ans, Although I do think that the person to rewrite or publish a story to be read or watch, should be a professional.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your blog and really related with the reference to Pawn Stars, I love that show.
Great post! I loved how you explained primary and secondary sources in such a helpful way! You offered such a unique perspective by relating it back to museums. You really made this blog post your own so good for you! I didn’t realize how many different types of museums there were, it really puts it into perspective how many museums there are and how many museums that I haven’t been to. It’s interesting that there are museums that use secondary sources, primary sources or a mix of both. In your post you said that most museums use secondary sources and I have to disagree. Many museums use a lot of primary sources and a few secondary sources. I’ve been to plenty museums that used a lot of primary sources and it is extremely interesting to see the original artifacts or letters. I thought you had very good examples of each type of source. I also didn’t know that you need to have a primary source to make a historical assumption, interesting! I wonder what our history books would be like if we made historical assumptions based on both primary and secondary sources. We would most likely have very different perspectives of history and how it happened. I also loved your picture of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. That was a very fun and education field trip and I had quite a lot of fun. Did you know that the Canadian Museum for Human Rights was built to promote respect for others and to encourage reflection and dialogue? You can learn more about the history of the museum at: (https://humanrights.ca/about). P.S: Sweet reference to Pawn Stars :)
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ReplyDeleteI really like your post; it is very informational and easy to understand. I for instance did not know that ‘the Mona Lisa’ was worth at least 780 million dollars; I knew it was expensive but not that much. I know that I like going to different museums to see the different types of artifacts each one holds and they explain the story based on them. Your explanations of Primary and Secondary sources were very well written and easy to understand. Did you know that the LARGEST museum in the world is the Louvre Museum in Paris France? It received more than 9.26 million visitors in the year 2014 and would take you over 100 days to do and would only be able to look at each piece for 30 seconds; you can learn a lot more about it at: (http://thelistlove.com/10-interesting-facts-about-the-louvre/). Overall Nice Post!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed the fact that you've used museums as your example of both primary and secondary sources. A museum is a perfect example of both. There are so many interesting journals or diaries and other primary sources that you can see. Primary and secondary sources are really important when learning about history. It's very interesting to see something a person from long ago has written or made. Secondary sources are just important as primary sources too. Secondary sources help us to see things in a different point of view; it also allows us to see a piece of information in some type of way, when were unable to see it in person. It's like how people are able to go and view Anne Frank's diary in a museum. That would be a very unique experience, and very educational. Being able to learn about our history and being able to share information is so important. Museums and such are becoming less and less interesting to the children of this generation, they would rather read online about things. Primary and secondary sources help to preserve the past.
ReplyDeleteyou have a fabulous blog post. it was very detailed maybe you should try to add what kind of stuff that they have in the museum. think that would be really cool if you did that and maybe someone made a secondary post tell us about it and show us some pictures but other wise good job
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