What is the primary purpose of a primary source?

• A. To provide direct evidence
• B. To give a modern interpretation
• C. To summarize others' work
• D. To publish a bibliography

Answer: (A)

Primaries are original materials created at or near the time of the event or by someone with direct experience of it. Their main value is that they provide direct evidence—the raw details, voices, and records from the period—without the mediation of later interpretation. This firsthand quality lets historians form an accurate picture of what happened, who was involved, and how people saw things at the time.

Other options describe what secondary sources do: offering modern interpretations, or summarizing others’ work, or compiling sources in a bibliography. Those are useful scholarly practices, but they are not the primary function of a primary source itself.