Historical Sources
Universität des SaarlandesFR 3.4 History, FR 4.7 Linguistics
Seminar: NLP/Text Mining for Historical TextsM. Schreiber, C. SporlederWintersemester 2009/2010
Structure
• 1. What are historical sources?• 2. What kinds of sources do exist?• 3. How to work with sources• 4. Archives
1. What are historical sources?
• Texts, facts and also objects that give information about the past
→ everything that tells something about the past
→ broader idea of sources
• Only written texts and original documents
→ close idea of sources
2. What kinds of sources do exist?
• Written sources (contracts, chronicle, letters…)
• Audiovisual sources (speeches on TV or on the radio…)
• Material sources (coins, pictures, clothes…)• Oral-history (interviews…)• Abstract sources (language, customs and
traditions…)
Kinds of sources:
Code
Constitutio Criminalis Carolina, Frankfurt am Main 1577
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/ac/De_Constitutio_criminalis_Carolina_%281577%29_01.jpg/400px-De_Constitutio_criminalis_Carolina_%281577%29_01.jpg (21.02.2010)
Kinds of sources: Coins
Roman Denar (Marcus Antonius) 32 B.C.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b2/Denarius_Mark_Anthony-32BC-legIII.jpg (21.02.2010)
Kinds of sources: Caricature
David Low, In: Evening Standard, 20.09.1939
http://www.lsg.musin.de/Geschichte/Material/Karikaturen/hitler-stalin-pakt.jpg (21.02.2010)
2. What kinds of sources do exist?
• Primary sources
→ first-hand information, original source
• Secondary sources
→ they relate to primary sources and usually quote (lost) primary sources
3. How to work with sources
• Question(s) to the source
→ What do you want to find out?• Verification of sources
- Description
- Interpretation
Verification of sources
• Type of source• Time of origin, place, author• Context• Information in the text
• Auxiliary sciences of history might help to work with sources
4. Archives
• How to keep historical sources?• Private (unpublished sources) or
public/official in archives• Their function is to keep original
documents, to preserve them and to make them available for public
• They have to follow certain rules, for example a retention period
4. Archives
• Federal archive (different locations in Germany)
www.bundesarchiv.de
• State archive (Saarbrücken-Scheidt)
www.saarland.de/landesarchiv.htm
• City archive (Saarbrücken)
www.saarbruecken.de/de/kultur/stadtarchiv
Locations of the
Federal archive
http://www.bundesarchiv.de/aufgaben_organisation/dienstorte/index.html (21.02.2010)
State archive Saarbrücken-Scheidt
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4c/Saarl%C3%A4ndisches_Landesarchiv_01.jpg/469px-Saarl%C3%A4ndisches_Landesarchiv_01.jpg (21.02.2010)