Primary Historical Research
Personal Sources Include Diaries, Photos and Artifacts
Primary research includes diaries, letters, photos, historical objects and places to create vivid historical fiction.
If you’re fascinated with the historical time period you choose, your research will be fun. There are some basic guidelines to follow, though. Reading fictional accounts of the pioneers and watching Little House on the Prairie does not constitute research on the 1800s! Movies, television shows, and old books are notoriously inaccurate. So go to the actual sources for your information – there are more of them out there than you realize.
Primary Sources
Look at primary sources first to find out how things really were. These are sources that were used or created at or near your time period. Don’t limit yourself to items directly related to your historic character – any sources from that period can provide details and insights in general. Here are some examples of sources belonging to or created by people living in your historical period:
Historical Writings
Diaries, letters and scrapbooks give details about events and daily life, through the eyes of someone who lived then. The things included are what were important to that particular person, and the language and attitude may change depending on who they are writing to, or if they worry about posterity reading their comments. They are also good for finding the right language for your dialogue. Letters may be written in more formal language than diaries, which may be more formal than scrapbooks.
Historical Photos
Photos and/or paintings provide valuable details. Look for architecture, clothing and jewelry fashion, hair styles, transportation details, etc. In early photos, look at what is displayed in the family portrait - these items were important to the family. In older paintings, look for symbolism to discover abstract values.
Historical Artifacts
Artifacts are the actual objects from your historical time period. Sometimes you can look at them, sometimes you can handle them. How big is that gold coin? Just how heavy is a flatiron? How far from the firebox to the whistle pull in the locomotive engine? Artifacts actually owned by your historical character can give you a glimpse into his / her personality. What small tokens did he treasure? What tools did he use? How fine was his furniture? What heirlooms did he keep?
Family Bibles and their record pages can give examples of how many children a family might have in a short amount of time, how many children died young, how long the older generations lived. They may also give hints to family secrets – a marriage date that was changed to make a subsequent child look legitimate, or names crossed out when a person was disgraced and disowned.
Historical Places
Visit the actual historic sites where your story is set. Look for buildings and streets that still remain. If they don’t exist anymore, visit the place anyway. Walk the distance from the Boston Post Road to the beach. Feel the summer humidity in St. Louis. Take a snowy sleigh ride in Montreal. Close your eyes and imagine what it was like then.
(Special thanks to Carolyn P. Yoder, editor of Calkins Creek Books, for the guidelines on which this article is based.)
