Professor Lahlum's course on Minnesota in 1862 was my first introduction to primary sources at the graduate level.  During this course, I completed a research paper "Civic Support: Minnesota Communities and their Involvement in the Civil War."  Newspaper articles and letters from soldiers comprised the majority of my primary sources.  Observing the different perspectives in the sources allowed me to generate research questions and analyze primary sources thereby completing the first learning outcome.  

Representations of front-line conditions were limited largely to letters which in some cases were the most detailed sources.  Conversely, newspaper articles were often daily or monthly publications that were broader in their description of events.  Recognizing this disparity in the representation of events taught me that circumstances and context are just as important as what the sources overtly state.  Recognizing the strengths and weaknesses in these primary sources enabled me to establish a more accurate understanding of events. 

I am accustomed to studying wars where communications from troops were often censored or screened.  After consulting secondary sources, I noticed an observation by Richard Moe that the Civil War was the last major U.S. conflict where most citizens were literate and there was no major censorship of their correspondence.[1]  As a result, the Civil War actually generated a substantial amount of reliable primary sources for historians to use.  Without consulting secondary sources and noticing Richard Moe's ideas, I would have disregarded many helpful primary sources. 

In addition to my final research paper, a completed a PowerPoint presentation that summarized the role of primary sources in guiding my research.  This also gave me the opportunity to explain the relevance of the sources and what made them applicable to my work. This course has prepared me for a career in a museum by developing my ability to explain the significance of artifacts or information and convey their importance to the public. Including the observations of others such as those from Richard Moe, emphasizes the importance of diversity and contributions from everyone in an organization.  

[1] Kenneth Carley and Richard Moe, Minnesota in the Civil War: an Illustrated History 
(St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2000), xiv.