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Most educators use primary source materials as a teaching tool at some time. Think about it. A visit to a museum or a historic house almost always includes a display of letters or official papers. Students participate in show and tell activities with photographs, letters, or post cards from a family collection. Reproductions of the Gettysburg Address, the Declaration of Independence, or other famous historic documents are commonly used illustrations.
Primary source materials may provide the only direct link to the participants and witnesses of important past events. They captivate students by humanizing history and supplying the language, emotions, attitudes and values of the people who lived that history. These original materials allow students to see the past in a way that cannot be matched by the best textbook or any other "secondary" source.
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