One of the reasons that history is exciting is that there is always more to learn. While we often think we know the whole story of an event, person, or place, new information can come to light completely changing what we thought we knew. So, how DO we know what we know at the Molly Brown House Museum?

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The best place to search out the past is in primary sources. Primary sources are records made by witnesses or participants in an event. A record can be anything from a diary, to photographs and drawings, to objects. Newspapers and books may be primary sources when they're written by people who took part in an event or who knew a person directly. A great example of this is the newspaper article Margaret Brown wrote about her experience during and after the sinking of the Titanic.

 

But these may also be secondary sources. A secondary source would be an article written in a newspaper by a journalist who heard about Mrs. Brown's experience, but didn't know her, didn't interview her, and wasn't there at the sinking. Their account isn't necessarily wrong, but we don't give it as much weight as a primary source.

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As we uncover sources to give us a richer understanding of the past, we must always view them with a critical eye--even a primary source can lead you astray given that it will reflect the creator's understanding of the world.

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