Some examples of primary source formats include:
- archives and manuscript material
- photographs, audio recordings, video recordings, films
- journals, letters and diaries
- speeches
- scrapbooks
- published books, newspapers and magazine clippings published at the time
- government publications
- oral histories
- records of organizations
- autobiographies and memoirs
- printed ephemera
- artifacts, e.g. clothing, costumes, furniture
- research data, e.g. public opinion polls