1 HIS 100 Primary Source Hunt Short Response Guidelines and Rubric Activity: Open these three links to digital repositories containing resources related to the dropping of the atomic bomb. Browse through each repository (Truman Library Collections, Voices of the Manhattan Project, and National Security Archive), and think about how useful these repositories would be to you if you were a historian seeking to write a biography on the scientist Leo Szilard (pronounced SIL-lard) who helped develop the atomic bomb and also campaigned against its use. 1. Truman Library Collections 2. Voices of the Manhattan Project 3. Atomic Heritage Foundation As you explore each repository, try to locate the following primary sources that you might consult to write a chapter about Szilard’s campaign against dropping the atomic bomb. Each primary source is located in only one of the above repositories. Try your best to locate each source, but it is OK if you are not able to locate all three. If you are successful in your search, try skimming through the sources you find. 1. The transcription of the oral history interview with Tom Evans, a close friend of President Truman’s, discussing scientists’ opposition to the use of the atomic bomb 2. A petition against the use of the atomic bomb circulated by Szilard directed toward President Truman 3. An interview with Lilli Hornig, a scientist who signed Szilard’s petition against the use of the atomic bomb To do this, develop search terms similar to the examples shown in the Module Two Module Overview. Only use these three online repositories to locate these sources—do not consult Google or any other search engine. Take notes on the search terms that are successful and keep the links to the sources you find. Prompt: In two to three sentences, respond to each question. To develop your responses, combine your experience using search terms to locate the three primary sources in this module with your own reflections on the questions posed. Regardless of whether or not you were able to find all three primary sources, complete all question prompts before you submit your responses. If you were not able to find the primary sources, let your instructor know what search terms you did use so he or she can provide you with feedback on how to develop effective search terms. 1. Describe your overall experience locating these primary sources. Was it challenging or straightforward? Do you learn anything interesting along the way? 2. Were you able to locate an interview with Tom Evans, a close friend of President Truman’s, who interacted with scientists who were trying to reach Truman with their campaign against the use of the atomic bomb? Share your search terms and a link to the primary source. 3. Were you able to locate a petition against the use of the atomic bomb circulated by Leo Szilard directed toward President Truman? Share your search terms and a link to the primary sourc ...

1. 1
HIS 100 Primary Source Hunt Short Response Guidelines and
Rubric
Activity: Open these three links to digital repositories
containing resources related to the dropping of the atomic
bomb. Browse through each repository (Truman
Library Collections, Voices of the Manhattan Project, and
National Security Archive), and think about how useful these
repositories would be to you if you were a
historian seeking to write a biography on the scientist Leo
Szilard (pronounced SIL-lard) who helped develop the atomic
bomb and also campaigned against its use.
1. Truman Library Collections
2. Voices of the Manhattan Project
3. Atomic Heritage Foundation
As you explore each repository, try to locate the following
primary sources that you might consult to write a chapter about
Szilard’s campaign against dropping the
atomic bomb. Each primary source is located in only one of the
above repositories. Try your best to locate each source, but it is
OK if you are not able to locate all
three. If you are successful in your search, try skimming
through the sources you find.
1. The transcription of the oral history interview with Tom

2. Evans, a close friend of President Truman’s, discussing
scientists’ opposition to the use of the
atomic bomb
2. A petition against the use of the atomic bomb circulated by
Szilard directed toward President Truman
3. An interview with Lilli Hornig, a scientist who signed
Szilard’s petition against the use of the atomic bomb
To do this, develop search terms similar to the examples shown
in the Module Two Module Overview. Only use these three
online repositories to locate these
sources—do not consult Google or any other search engine.
Take notes on the search terms that are successful and keep the
links to the sources you find.
Prompt: In two to three sentences, respond to each question. To
develop your responses, combine your experience using search
terms to locate the three
primary sources in this module with your own reflections on the
questions posed. Regardless of whether or not you were able to
find all three primary sources,
complete all question prompts before you submit your
responses. If you were not able to find the primary sources, let
your instructor know what search terms
you did use so he or she can provide you with feedback on how
to develop effective search terms.
1. Describe your overall experience locating these primary
sources. Was it challenging or straightforward? Do you learn
anything interesting along the way?
2. Were you able to locate an interview with Tom Evans, a close
friend of President Truman’s, who interacted with scientists
who were trying to reach

3. Truman with their campaign against the use of the atomic
bomb? Share your search terms and a link to the primary source.
3. Were you able to locate a petition against the use of the
atomic bomb circulated by Leo Szilard directed toward
President Truman? Share your search
terms and a link to the primary source.
4. Were you able to locate an interview with Lilli Hornig, a
scientist who signed Szilard’s petition against the use of the
atomic bomb? Share your search
terms and a link to the primary source.
https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library
http://manhattanprojectvoices.org/
https://www.atomicheritage.org/
2
Rubric
Guidelines for Submission: Respond to all four questions. Each
response should be two to three sentences in length.
Critical Elements Proficient (100%) Needs Improvement (75%)
Not Evident (0%) Value
Focus of Response Provides focused and direct reflection to
answer questions posed
Provides reflection, but the focus is unclear

4. or unrelated to the questions posed
Does not provide reflection 40
Length of
Response
Answers provided are two to three
sentences in length
Answers provided are only one sentence in
length
Does not provide answers 30
Communicates
Clearly
Clearly communicates key ideas and
thoughts in a short answer response
Response needs clarification in order to
support understanding of key ideas and
thoughts
Response is not legible and key ideas or
thoughts are not understandable
30
Total 100%

5. 2-1 Finding Primary Sources1.html
Learning ObjectivesEvaluate a repository of historical primary
sourcesIdentify a topic for historical researchIdentify useful
research questions related to the chosen topicIdentify types of
primary and secondary sources for studying a chosen topic
Module at a Glance
This is the recommended plan for completing the reading
assignments and activities within the module. Additional
information can be found in the module Reading and Resources
section and in the task list.Review the module
resources.Respond to the short response assignment on primary
source hunt.Complete the quiz on prioritizing primary
sources.Submit the Project 1: Topic Exploration Worksheet.
Reading and Resources
Digital Repositories: The links below contain resources relating
to the drop of the atomic bomb. They will be referenced in the
short response activity due this week.Truman Library
CollectionsVoices of the Manhattan ProjectAtomic Heritage
Foundation
Article: How to Frame a Researchable Question
Developing a research question is an important part of topic
selection. All history starts with asking good research
questions. This resource written by history graduate students
guides you through the thought process of framing a successful
research question in support of selecting a topic.
Interactive: Fix the Research Question
In this supplemental activity, you will be presented with
problematic research questions. You will identify the problem
and propose replacement questions. This will provide practice
for the research question portion of Project 1.
A text only version is available: Module Two Fix the Research
Question Text Only Transcript Word Document
Resource: HIS 100 Research Guide

6. Skim through the SNHU Shapiro Library History Research
Guide, which includes information about the research tools that
are available to you via the Shapiro Library.
Course Documents/HIS 100 Fix the Research Question Text
Only Transcript.docx
HIS 100 Fix the Research Question Text Only Transcript
Fix the Research Question (text of interactive activity)
In this activity, you will evaluate a series of research questions,
selecting the best historical research question for the identified
topic.
Topic 1: The Invasion of Iraq
Select the question that is more effective for historical research:
Was the American military invasion of Iraq in 2003 the right
thing to do?
How did the American government justify the invasion of Iraq
in 2003?
Correct answer: How did the American government justify the
invasion of Iraq in 2003? This question can be answered
through research on the invasion.
Topic 2: Causes of War
Select the question that is more effective for historical research:
Which wars have been fought in Africa over access to
resources?
Why do wars happen?
Correct answer: Which wars have been fought in Africa over
access to resources?
This question is specific and narrow enough that it can be
answered in a reasonable time.

7. Topic 3: Health Regulations
Select the question that is more effective for historical research:
What have been the effects of government regulations on the
healthcare industry?
How did the Affordable Care Act of 2010 change the
relationship between doctors, patients, and insurers?
Correct answer: How did the Affordable Care Act of 2010
change the relationship between doctors, patients, and insurers?
This question is effective because it focuses on a particular
regulation related to healthcare.
Topic 4: United States and China Relationship
Select the question that is more effective for historical research:
Will a new Cold War develop between the United States and
China in the near future?
In what ways has the relationship between the United States and
China become more tense over the past quarter century?
Correct answer: In what ways has the relationship between the
United States and China become more tense over the past
quarter century?
Historians can address this question by looking at the past
relationship between the United States and China.
Topic 5: International Space Station
Select the question that is more effective for historical research:
When was the International Space Station built?
For what purpose(s) was the International Space Station
constructed?
Correct answer: For what purpose(s) was the International
Space Station constructed?
This is an appropriate research question that can be answered in
a reasonable amount of time through historical research.
1

8. 2-2 Choosing a Topic1.html
Finding Primary Sources
Primary sources are key to historians’ research. Due to age,
composition, and exceptionality, primary sources are sometimes
quite valuable and often require special attention. Repositories
at the national, state, and local levels, as well as at the public
and the private levels, preserve primary sources.
National repositories such as the National Archives and the
Library of Congress safeguard materials that are deemed to be
of national importance. Universities also have archives that
preserve primary sources related to the institution, to notable
alumni or donors, or to the research interests of their faculty.
Museums and libraries at all levels have archives attached to
their missions, and historical societies often preserve primary
sources that are of local or niche interest to researchers.
Traditionally, historians visit such repositories and, with the
assistance of archivists and finding guides, explore files of
material pertinent to their research. The arrival of the Digital
Age, however, resulted in many repositories scanning,
digitizing, and posting their collections online. Online finding
guides and search tools make looking for specific primary
sources easier than it once was.
In order to make the most of finding primary sources online,
you will need to be able to develop strong search terms to
deploy in your search for primary sources. Generally, you will
need to supply the name of the person or historical event you
are researching. Usually, it is also helpful to identify a
particular type of primary source document that you have in
mind. Examples include:LetterSpeechInterviewDiaryOral
historyJournalPhotograph
A historian who is researching primary sources on President
Franklin Roosevelt’s interactions with American military
leaders during World War II, for example, might start off by

9. searching the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and
Museum’s online repository with the following search term:
letter. (Note: Since this is Roosevelt’s own library, the historian
has chosen to omit Roosevelt’s name from the search.)
A search like this will produce a lot of results, though. The
historian in this example might add in the name of someone who
he or she already knows is a major figure in the American
military to narrow the search, such as Chief of Staff of the
Army General Douglas MacArthur, the commander; the search
then becomes: letter Douglas MacArthur. This search produces
a letter from Roosevelt to MacArthur that reveals some
dynamics of their relationship.
While a wholly digital approach to research is not yet possible
due to sheer volume and funding, the ability to both explore
caches of digitized primary sources and to view online finding
aids for non-digitized primary sources is a great boon to today’s
historians.
Historical Questions
One of the most important early steps in a research project is
the formulation of a question to answer. In the previous module,
you thought about the ways in which historians choose topics.
Once the historian chooses a topic, he or she has to decide what
to say about it. One of the most effective ways to decide what to
say is to ask a question about the topic that you would like to
answer.
Creating a research question can be difficult, and you will
probably revise your questions many times as you conduct
research and write. Start big. What attracted you to the topic in
the first place? What did you want to know about it? Now that
you have thought about the topic a bit, what do you still want to
know about it?
Once you have thought of these initial questions, you will need
to refine your research questions. Not all research questions are
useful. They may be too broad, too narrow, or unanswerable. A
question that is too broad cannot be answered in a reasonable

10. amount of time or space. For example, imagine that your topic
is the American Civil War. If you try to write a paper on the
Civil War, you will never finish. The topic is too big. To
adequately cover the entire war, you would have to analyze the
experiences of the more than 30 million Americans who lived
through it. In order to trim the project to a manageable size, you
must decide what part of the Civil War is important to you and
ask questions that will guide your research. Perhaps you are
interested in economics: How did the Civil War affect interstate
commerce? The environment: How did the war and war-related
industries affect the collection and distribution of natural
resources? The military: What strategy did Union General
Ulysses S. Grant pursue in the Overland Campaign in 1864?
These questions are more practical for a term paper like the one
you could complete in a history class.
A research question may also be too narrow. The question for a
term paper must require more than a one-sentence or one-
paragraph answer. “Where and when was the Magna Carta
signed?” will not yield a very substantial answer, and the
answer can be found in any encyclopedia. There is no research
involved. A narrow question like this needs to be broadened.
“What economic and political issues prompted the creation of
the Magna Carta in 1215?” is a more substantial question that
can be answered with historical sources. Another problem with
narrow questions is the issue of significance. Your project
should contribute something new to our collective
understanding of history. A question that can be answered in
one paragraph is probably offering nothing new.
Finally, the research question may be unanswerable. There may
be no historical sources to help you answer the question, either
because the sources were destroyed or because they never
existed. The question may also be unanswerable by a historian,
but a practitioner from another field could answer it. A historian
could not answer a question about plate tectonics, because there
are no human-made primary sources that support an argument
about it. A geologist, on the other hand, could use rock

11. formations and other natural phenomena to make an argument
for or against plate tectonics. Similarly, a question like “Why
does the universe exist?” is not answerable by a historian, but is
better answered by a theologian or a philosopher. Questions that
are too vague may also be unanswerable. “How does the mass
media influence history?” is too vague. It is hard to figure out
where to start researching that question. What is meant by
“mass media”? Does it mean television, radio, stone tablets, the
internet? What does “influence history” mean? Does that mean
mass media’s influence on the study of history or its influence
on decision making at the time? As written, the question is not
answerable.
In this module, you will read some documents that discuss
research questions, and the revision thereof, in greater detail.
You will also gain experience in formulating and evaluating
research questions on your own.
Historical Sources
Some historical questions can never be answered because of a
lack of primary sources. Some historical questions, on the other
hand, enjoy a wealth of relevant primary sources. In many
instances, especially for beginning researchers, the amount of
primary sources can be overwhelming. These sources may
include letters, diaries, government reports, memoranda,
brochures, physical objects, pay stubs, and sticky notes.
The successful researcher must prioritize sources in order to
find a starting point. Archives and libraries often provide a n
index (often called a “finding aid”) of their holdings.
Sometimes these finding aids are very short and include nothing
more than the name of a box of documents. Other finding aids
are extensive and provide detailed descriptions of each
document. Later in this course, you will search for finding aids
relevant to a research topic of your choice. Here you will access
a pre-selected finding aid and create a plan for tackling the
extensive list of sources.
If you have a detailed list of sources, it should be fairly easy to

12. prioritize sources. Newspaper articles and government reports
usually provide fairly comprehensive discussions of a topic and
will usually serve as good places to start. An individual person
will have a fairly limited understanding of a large,
contemporaneous topic, and primary sources written from one
person’s perspective will reflect that. Once you understand the
big picture and the basic narrative of a topic, you can begin to
look at primary sources that present a much smaller view of the
topic, like letters or diaries. Many finding aids only provide
authors, recipients, and dates for personal writing; they often
omit any description of content. There is no alternative but to
read through all of those documents individually.