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• How to keep historical sources?• Private (unpublished sources) or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)