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What is a Secondary Source?
In contrast to a primary source, a secondary source of information is one that was created later by someone who did not experience first-hand or participate in the events or conditions you’re researching. For the purposes of our essay, secondary sources are generally local history books, articles and most of the materials on the Historic Highlandlake website. Also included would be reference sources like encyclopedias.
For example, the book The Longmont Album, History and Folklore of the St. Vrain Valley, by Betty Ann Newby published in 1995, could be used as a secondary source to learn about Mead and the surrounding area in the early 20th century. By checking out her bibliography you can also get ideas of where to find some of the primary sources she used. Other books that focus on the early settlements in this area are They Came To Stay 1858-1920, We Also Came to Stay A History of the Longmont Hispanic Community, Joyful Childhood Memories of a Pioneer Woman by Hazel W. Dalziel (information about the early Liberty community), and The Chicago-Solorado Colony Founding of Longmont by Mabel Downer Durning, may give invaluable information on daily life in this area, plus how and why the early settlers came to this area. The Longmont Album also contains information on the Mead area.
some examples of secondary sources:
- Reference Books
- Biographical dictionaries*
- History Textbooks
- Journal Articles
- Books written by historians about our local area
*Biographical dictionaries are compilations of biographies of people selected because of their fame, accomplishments, membership in a particular group, or some other distinguishing characteristic. Each person's entry is a succinct summary of his or her life, often written by an expert. The Longmont Library has a couple books of this type, written in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Several bio's of pioneers who lived in the Mead area are included in these books. These books are so fragile and valuable that they are stored in a special section of the library. You will need permission to see them and, unless something has changed, you will be accompanied at all times while in that section, by a member of the library staff. In the past, I have been allowed to photocopy pages out of these books.
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This page was updated on October 31, 2009