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HIST 271-L01: History of Medicine (Dr. Y. Petry): Searching for Primary Sources

Is it primary or secondary?

Sample of Primary Source Collections at the U of R

Click on each image to view the Quick Find record.

          

     

The Black Death

Horrox, Rosemary

The Making of the English Patient: A Guide to Sources for the Social History of Medicine

Lane, Joan

The Black Death: The Great Mortality of 1348-1350: A Brief History with Documents

Aberth, John

      

Medical Women: A Thesis and a History

Jex-Blake, Sophia

Galen 'On Demonstration': Reconstruction of a Lost Treatise from Greek and Arabic Sources

Havrda, Matyáš; Koetschet, Pauline

Medicine and Healing in the Ancient Mediterranean World, Proceedings of the International Conference

Medicine in the Ancient Mediterranean World (Conference)

Greek Medicine: From the Heroic to the Hellenistic Age: A Source Book

Longrigg, James

The Healing Arts: Health, Disease, and Society in Europe, 1500-1800

Elmer, Peter

Source Book in Bioethics: A Documentary History

Jonsen, Albert; Veatch, Robert; Walters, LeRoy

Primary Sources in Quick Find

Primary source searching in Quick Find requires a slightly different approach.  

You may be able to find some primary sources in Quick Find by using the same keywords you used to find secondary sources, but limit your results to specific time periods (on the left).

You can also combine your keyword(s) with some primary source keywords, such as diary(ies), pamphlet(s), letter(s), source(s), correspondence, speech(es), manuscript(s), personal narrative(s), interview(s), firsthand, eyewitness,  autobiography(ies), biography(ies).

Click the image below to watch a primary source search in Quick Find.

Secondary Source Bibliographies

If you find a scholarly, secondary source well-suited to your topic of interest, scroll to the end of the article and spend some time studying its bibliography.

Not only will the list point you in the direction of other secondary sources on the topic, but chances are it will cite key primary sources as well.  Use the bibliographic information listed in the bibliography to help track down the primary source in Quick Find, a primary source database, or even on the internet.

If you need help locating the primary source, contact Carla.  It's possible that a digitized copy of the source may be available through interlibrary loan.

 

Primary Source Databases

U of R Libraries subscribe to a number of digitized primary source collections. To see what is available, click on the Databases tab on the the library home page.  Select History in the Subject box, and Primary Sources in the Types box.  Some good ones for this assignment might be:

Defining Gender

Early English Books Online

Eighteenth Century Collections Online

Gale Primary Sources

London Low Life

Click the image below to watch a primary source search in a database.