How We Know about the Past

The past is everything that has already happened. Yesterday is in the past. So is a day thousands of years ago. We learn about those times from things left behind.

Five kinds of sources

A source is something that can tell you about the past. You might study:

• Objects, such as toys, clothes, tools, and cups.
• Pictures, such as photos, paintings, and drawings.
• Buildings and places, such as houses, bridges, and streets.
• Writing, such as letters, maps, lists, and diaries.
• Memories, stories, and songs that people share.

A bus ticket can be a source. So can your birthday card. Sources need not be famous or very old. A photo from last summer already shows the past.

A source gives evidence

Evidence is information that helps answer your question. The source is what you study. The evidence is the clue you get from it.

Imagine asking, "How did children write at school long ago?" You study an old wooden desk. It has a small round hole. You learn that this hole held a little ink pot. That gives evidence that children used pens dipped in ink.

Now ask, "What were their desks made of?" The same desk gives another answer. You can see wood and iron. Two seats joined together give a clue that children sat in pairs. Your question helps you decide which details matter.

Look for another piece

The desk cannot tell you the children’s names. It cannot tell you whether they enjoyed school. An old class list might give their names. A former pupil’s memory could tell you how school felt.

Think of sources as pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. Each gives part of the picture. Put several together to learn more. When you explain an answer, name the source that gave you the clue: "The photo shows children sitting in rows."

A history question gives you something to find out. "What did children play 100 years ago?" can lead you to toys, photos, and memories. Start with a question you can explore.

Six helpful question words

When you meet a source, ask:

• What is it?
• Who made it or used it?
• When was it made?
• Where was it made or found?
• How was it made?
• Why was it made?

You may not find every answer at once. Write down what you still wonder.

Look first, then think

Imagine a photo showing a boy in a cap and short pants. "I can see a boy wearing a cap" describes the photo. "I think he dressed up for a special day" is an idea about it. The clothes alone do not tell you which day it was.

Use words that match your clues. "I can see…" tells what you notice. "I think… because…" joins an idea to its reason. "Maybe…" and "I wonder…" help when you need more clues. "I am not sure yet" is an honest answer.

Try the questions on a toy

You find a wooden spinning top. First, look at its shape and material. It has a string wound around it. You learn that pulling the string makes it spin. These details help you work out what it does.

Who used it? Probably a child, because it is a toy. When was it made? Wood alone cannot settle that. People still make wooden tops today. Look for a label, a date, or someone who knows its story.

Ask what is still missing

An old train ticket has a printed date and price. It can tell you when the trip was and what it cost. It may have no passenger’s name. You would need another source to learn who traveled or why.

Keep two questions beside your notes: "What can this tell me?" and "What can’t it tell me?" You can ask them about a toy, a picture, a house, a letter, or a memory.

People have different jobs finding and caring for clues. Their work helps everyone learn about earlier times. You can try some of their looking and questioning skills too.

Historians and archaeologists

A historian studies the past and explains it to others. Historians often read letters, diaries, and old newspapers. They also study pictures, objects, and memories. A historian might use a diary and a photo together to learn about school.

An archaeologist studies things people left behind. These include tools, pots, coins, bones, and remains of buildings. Many finds come from careful digging. Such a dig is called an excavation. An archaeologist records where each find lay, as well as what it looks like.

Who studies dinosaur fossils?

A paleontologist studies fossils. A fossil is a preserved remain or trace of a living thing from long ago. Bones, teeth, shells, leaf prints, and footprints can be fossils. Some keep parts of the living thing. Others keep a mark it left.

The dinosaurs such as Triceratops died out about 66 million years ago. That was long before people lived. Paleontologists study their fossils. Archaeologists study the human past, such as the tools people made.

People who care for collections

A museum curator cares for a museum’s collection. Curators find out about objects and plan how to show them. They also help keep the collection safe.

An archivist cares for old papers, photographs, maps, and recordings. These are kept in an archive, where people can study them.

New clues can change an answer

These people ask questions and compare clues. If someone finds a letter in an attic, it may add a missing part. A new find can change an earlier explanation. Changing your mind when you find better evidence is part of learning about the past.

An artifact is an object that people made or used. A spoon, a shoe, and a toy car are artifacts. Look closely to learn how an object helped someone work, travel, or play.

Start with its parts

Notice its shape, size, and color. Is it wood, metal, stone, clay, glass, cloth, or plastic? If you may handle it, notice its weight and feel. A handle shows where someone could hold it. Scratches and shiny worn patches show repeated use. Burn marks suggest that it was heated.

Work out an object’s job

Picture an iron made of solid metal. It has a handle and a smooth, flat bottom. It has no cord or plug.

1. The flat bottom could press clothes smooth.
2. The handle let someone hold the hot iron.
3. Without a cord, this iron did not use electricity.
4. It was heated on a hot stove before use.

The iron is evidence of ironing without electricity. Its weight also helps you understand the hard work involved. The object alone does not name its owner or tell you how that person felt.

Compare the same job then and now

Put an old washboard beside a washing machine. Both help clean clothes, but people rubbed clothes against the board by hand. The machine has powered moving parts. Compare what each is made of, how it works, and how much effort it needs.

A telephone with a round dial and a smartphone both help people talk across a distance. Their size, parts, and other jobs differ. People in the past solved everyday problems with the tools they had. Simpler tools do not mean people were less clever.

Check its age

A material can help you work out when an object could have been made. Plastic toys and electricity in most homes became common only in about the last 100 years. A plastic toy or an object with a plug is very probably from that time.

Wood, metal, and clay are still used today. A wooden toy could be new. Some new things are made to look old, and some old things look clean. Look for a stamped maker’s name, a date, or a museum label. Someone who remembers using the object may know more about its story.

A dropped coin or a broken bowl may get covered by soil. Dust, sand, and new buildings can cover older things too. Over many years, layers build up, one above another.

Which layer came first?

Deeper layers are usually older. They were covered first. At one dig, a bottle cap lies near the top. A clay pot piece lies below it. A stone tool lies near the bottom. The tool is probably oldest, and the cap newest.

Sometimes the ground gets disturbed. Animals burrow, floods move soil, and people dig holes. A newer object can then lie below an older one. Archaeologists look at the soil as well as the objects.

Why dig so slowly?

Archaeologists use tools such as trowels and brushes. Before moving a find, they record its position. They take photographs, make drawings, and measure distances. A pot beside a hearth gives different clues from a pot far away.

Digging removes a layer forever. The careful record lets people study where things were even after that layer is gone. After a dig, finds are cleaned, labeled, counted, and compared. Many go to museums for further study.

What lasts, and what rots?

Stone, pottery, metal, glass, and bone can last thousands of years. Wood, cloth, leather, paper, and food usually rot away. Some survive in very dry or frozen places. Some survive in very wet places with almost no air.

Finding only stone tools does not mean people used only stone. Their wooden bowls, baskets, and clothes may have rotted. What survives is only part of what people once had.

A broken pot still helps

A shard is a broken piece of pottery. Imagine one with a painted pattern and black marks underneath. The marks suggest heating over a fire. It may have come from a cooking pot. The pattern also shows that people decorated things they used.

Archaeology is about people’s lives. A broken pot or bones in an old trash pit may teach as much as gold. If you find something that looks very old, leave it in place and show a grown-up. Ask a local museum about it before anyone digs.

A museum collects, cares for, and shows objects and other sources. A museum might be about trains, toys, art, science, or a town. An archive keeps papers, photographs, maps, and recordings for people to study. Libraries keep old books and newspapers too.

Read the label

A museum label may tell you what an object is, its material, and when and where it was used. Sometimes it names an owner. Read this example:

"Lunch pail. Tin. Carried by a child walking to school, about 1910."

The label tells you the pail was a metal lunch box. It links the pail to a child’s school walk. "About 1910" gives an approximate date. In 2026, that was about 116 years ago:

The label adds facts you could not learn just by looking. You could draw the pail and note the date to answer a question about school lunches.

Care for the collection

Bright light can fade colors. Damp air can make paper and cloth moldy. Museum workers control light, heat, and damp. They handle objects carefully and sometimes wear gloves.

Follow each display’s rules. Touch only when the staff or label says you may. Dirt and oil from hands can damage old things. Some museums offer handling boxes made for touching.

Museums often own more than they can display. Many objects stay in storerooms. A display shows a chosen part of the past. You can ask staff what else is in the collection.

Originals and copies

A replica is a copy made to look like an original. A museum may display one when the original is too fragile or precious. Read the label to find out which you are seeing.

Heritage is what people choose to keep and pass on from the past. It includes objects, buildings, special places, traditions, stories, songs, and languages. A heritage site is a place protected for this reason.

At a living history museum, people may show old ways of cooking or working. Some buildings may be old ones moved there. Others may be rebuilt copies. Ask which parts are original. You can also explore many museum and archive collections on their websites.

Look at an old picture as carefully as you would a new place. Pictures include photographs, paintings, drawings, posters, postcards, and cave paintings. Each can help you see people, things, and places from the past.

Start wide, then look closer

First look at the whole picture. Next, study one part at a time. Notice clothes and hair, toys and tools, buildings and transport. Look in the background too. Describe what you see before deciding what it means.

Imagine a black-and-white street photo. Horses pull carts. People wear coats and hats. You can say, "People on this street traveled with horse-drawn carts." You need more clues to give the date. Horses stayed in use longer in some places than others. Try a date on the back, shop signs, or records of the street.

Cameras have a history too

The first photographs were made about 200 years ago. For earlier times, we use paintings, drawings, carvings, and other clues. Some cave paintings are tens of thousands of years old.

Very old photos are often black and white or brownish. Most family photos were black and white until color became common in the 1960s and 1970s. Clothing, cars, and buildings also help with dating. A black-and-white picture could be newer, so check more than its color.

The world long ago had colors. Early cameras could record only light and dark. Old paintings show brightly colored clothes, rooms, and landscapes.

What did the maker choose?

A photo shows one moment inside its edges. Early photographs took time to make. People often stood still in their best clothes. Their photo might show a special day, not everyday life.

An artist can leave things out or add details. A queen painted in fine robes and jewels may look grand because that is how she wanted to be seen. Ask who made the picture and why.

A picture cannot let you hear a conversation or smell a meal. It does not tell you exactly what someone felt. Writing and memories may help with those questions.

Moving pictures

Films have been made for about 130 years. A film from long ago can show that time. A film made today about long ago was made later. It may change events to make the story exciting.

Your street may hold clues without a museum case. Houses, schools, shops, bridges, ruins, cemeteries, and places of worship can be sources. Look for parts that show what a place was like before.

Dates, doors, and fireplaces

An old school has "1885" carved over its door. In 2026, it was 141 years old:

Tall windows let in plenty of daylight. This mattered before electric lights were common. Separate doors have "Boys" and "Girls" carved above them. Those words show that boys and girls once used different entrances at this school.

Other details help you work out life inside a building. A large fireplace with an iron hook gives a clue about cooking over a fire. Fireplaces in every room show how people heated those rooms. The building alone cannot tell you the people’s names or feelings. Records, photos, and memories may add those parts.

Buildings change their jobs

An old bank may become a café. A train station may become a museum. Look for an old sign, a doorway filled in, or a newer room added on. These changes help tell the building’s story. Its earlier job also gives a clue about what the town needed.

Stone, brick, and wood are useful details to note. Window and door shapes matter too. Still, a new building can be made in an old style. Check dates and records before deciding its age.

Names and memorials

"Mill Street" might point to a mill that once stood nearby. "Station Road" might lead toward a station that is gone. Names can have other reasons, so check an old map or record.

A memorial or monument was made to help people remember. Statues, plaques, and war memorials often give names and dates. They also show what people chose to remember at the time they were made.

Compare then and now

Find the same place on an old map and a new one. Match a feature that is still there, such as a church. Then look around it. An old field may now be a street of houses. Write one change and one thing that stayed the same. An old photo can help you check what the map shows.

A written record is writing from the past. Letters, diaries, newspapers, maps, lists, receipts, and school reports are examples. Even words carved on a gravestone can help answer a history question.

Who wrote it, and why?

Ask what kind of record you have. Who wrote it? When? Who was meant to read it? Why was it made? These questions help you understand what the writing tells you.

A diary is usually private. A letter is meant for a particular reader. A newspaper shares news chosen for many readers. A receipt lists what someone bought and paid. A map shows where places were.

Read this diary example: "March 3, 1910. Snow again. Walked to school with Ada. Teacher let us sit near the stove."

The child walked to school, and a stove heated the classroom. Those are clues in the writing. It describes one child’s day. It does not tell you how every child traveled or how every school was heated.

Reading dates carefully

A gravestone says, "Thomas Brown, born 1840, died 1912." Subtract the birth year from the death year:

He was 71 or 72 when he died. The years alone do not tell you whether his birthday had happened yet that year. Full dates would let you work that out.

Old handwriting can be hard to read. Some is cursive, with letters joined together. Spelling and words can differ from today’s. Take it slowly, letter by letter, and ask a grown-up for help.

Before writing

People first invented writing about 5,000 years ago. Prehistory means the time before people wrote things down. Writing began at different times in different places. Prehistory therefore ended at different times too.

We learn about prehistory through objects, bones, building remains, cave paintings, and other pictures. In some places, stories passed down also help. There are no written records from a place’s time before writing.

Whose words survived?

Long ago, many people could not read or write. Their own words appear less often in written records. Ask, "Whose story is missing?" Writing can also contain mistakes or show only one person’s view. Compare it with objects, pictures, or memories to learn more.

An older person may remember toys, school, food, and games from childhood. Asking someone about their memories is called oral history. "Oral" means spoken.

Choose your questions

First choose a topic. School or childhood games is a good start. Write a few questions. Ask whether the person is happy to talk. Ask permission before recording or writing down what they say.

Use open questions that invite a story. "Did you play games at recess?" may get just "Yes." "What games did you play at recess?" helps the person tell you more.

Try questions such as "How did you get to school?" or "What happened on rainy days?" Listen without interrupting. Then ask a follow-up, such as "What happened next?" or "How did that feel?" Take notes and say thank you. Someone may choose not to answer a sad or private question. Let them move on.

Work out when a memory happened

Grandma was born in 1962. She remembers being 7. Add her age to her birth year to find the year she turned 7:

She says, "We had one television. The picture was black and white, and there were only a few channels."

This helps you learn what she remembers about home. A living-room photo could show the television. A newspaper’s TV schedule could help check the channels. Her memory might add how it felt to gather around it.

Memories give a personal view

People can describe smells, sounds, thoughts, and feelings. A photograph cannot give all those details. But memories are not perfect. Someone might forget a date or remember the best or worst part most clearly.

Two people may remember one event differently. That does not mean either is lying. Ask more questions and compare their memories with sources from the time.

How far can memory reach?

Living memory is the past that people alive today can remember. It reaches back about 80 to 100 years. People cannot remember events from before their own lives. For much earlier times, look for other sources, such as objects, pictures, places, and writing.

People shared knowledge long before they wrote it down. They still do. Stories, songs, dances, art, and the naming of ancestors carry the past forward.

Oral traditions

Oral tradition is knowledge passed through speaking and singing across generations. It can tell about ancestors, journeys, land, and important events. Many Indigenous peoples keep history this way.

Examples include First Nations in Canada, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australia, and Māori in Aotearoa New Zealand. In West Africa, storytellers called griots help keep and share history. Different peoples have their own ways of caring for this knowledge.

Oral traditions are important sources. Many are passed down with great care. Some fit with what archaeologists find. A story can carry true knowledge even when nobody wrote it down.

Family stories and heirlooms

Your family may tell stories about earlier homes or journeys. An heirloom is an object passed down in a family. A ring, quilt, or photo album may come with a story about its owner.

Details in a story can change as it is retold. Someone may forget a part or make another part bigger. Ask what else could help check a detail.

A family story says, "Great-grandpa walked ten miles to school every day through deep snow." An old map shows the school was about two miles from his farm. Weather records show deep snow only in some winters.

Put the clues together. He probably walked a long way, sometimes in snow. The map and weather records suggest that the distance and snow details grew over time.

Legends, myths, and songs

A legend mixes real people or events with made-up or enlarged parts. A myth tells how the world, or something in it, came to be. History detectives ask which parts they can check with other sources.

A song or celebration may remember an event from long ago. Even a playground rhyme may have been shared for many years. Ask who taught it and what its words mean.

Some stories belong to a family or a people. They decide how and when to share them. Listen respectfully, and ask before passing someone else’s story on.

A source’s age is useful, but you also need to ask how it connects to your question. Was it made at the time? Does it come from someone who was there?

First-hand sources

A primary source, or first-hand source, was made or used at the time you study. It can also come from someone who was there. A photo, letter, or toy from that time is first-hand. A person remembering their own childhood gives a first-hand memory, even when you record it today.

Second-hand sources

A secondary source, or second-hand source, explains the past later. Its maker was not there and uses other sources. A history book, a museum label, or a new film about long ago is second-hand about that past.

Both kinds help. First-hand sources let you examine clues yourself. Second-hand sources can explain difficult details and bring many sources together. A replica or a rebuilt heritage village can help you imagine a place, but it was made later.

Think about the event, not just the date

The first Moon landing was in 1969. Sort these sources about it:

Grandpa’s memory is about what he saw at home. It is not a memory of standing on the Moon. The question matters when you use a source.

An old painting can still be second-hand. A painting made 200 years ago about an event 500 years ago was made much later than that event. A class photo from last week is new, but first-hand about last week.

Finding sources online

A history website may show an old letter beside a new explanation. The letter is still first-hand about its time. The website’s new explanation is second-hand. Finding both on one screen does not make them the same kind of source.

Every source helps with some questions and leaves others unanswered. Think about who made it, why, and whose life it shows. A source can be useful without telling the whole story.

Try a three-part chart

Write three headings: "What it tells me," "What it can’t tell me," and "Questions I still have." Now study an old washing-machine advertisement. It says, "Washday made easy!" A smiling woman stands beside the machine.

• What it tells me: A company was selling this kind of machine.
• What it can’t tell me: Whether washing was easy for everyone, or how many families could buy it.
• Questions I still have: What did owners say about using it?

The advertisement shows what the company wanted people to believe. Its job was to sell something. You could check it against a household diary or memories of washday.

Match the source to the question

An old café menu lists the food that café sold. It can help answer, "What could customers order here?" It cannot tell you what most families cooked at home. Look for home memories or household records for that question.

A posed photo was made to look nice. A diary shows one person’s feelings. A newspaper prints stories its writers chose. Ask how the maker’s choices shaped what you see.

Look for missing voices

Not everyone left many sources. Poor families' homes and belongings may not have lasted. People who could not write left fewer written words. Children’s views may also be hard to find. Ask, "Whose story is missing?"

A gap in the clues does not mean nothing happened. In 2026, 220 years earlier was 1806. There are no photographs of your street from that year because cameras had not yet made photographs. Maps and buildings may still tell you about the street then.

Old writing can still be wrong

A printed page may look official, yet its writer could make a mistake. A very old source could tell only one side. Keep your question in mind, and check important details against another source.

Two sources may fit together neatly. They may also disagree or tell different parts. Compare their details to see what you can be more sure about and what needs checking.

When clues agree

You ask, "Did children at Grandpa’s school wear a uniform?" Grandpa remembers wearing one every day. A class photo shows matching sweaters. A school rule sheet says, "Uniform must be worn every day."

Each clue helps in a different way. The memory describes daily life. The photo shows one class on one day. The rule sheet gives the school’s rule. Together, they show that children at this school wore a uniform every day.

When clues disagree

Grandma remembers that a snowstorm closed her school for a week. A newspaper from that winter says it was closed for two days. Do not choose just because one source is printed or one person is family.

Check the newspaper’s date. Was it printed before the school reopened? Check which school each source describes. Look for later newspapers or school records. Grandma may have mixed up the length, or the report may tell only an early part. Say what you think and what is still unclear.

A note written on the day is often more exact about dates than a memory from 60 years later. Someone who was there usually knows more about their own experience than someone who heard about it. Still, any source can be wrong.

Different people can see different parts

A new railway reaches a town. A shop owner is glad because more customers can visit. A farmer is upset because the tracks cut a field in two. Their feelings differ because the railway changed their lives in different ways. Both views belong in the story.

Two museum displays or books may also tell an event differently. Their makers chose which people, objects, and details to show. Ask what each adds and leaves out.

Explain your choice

Use a sentence such as, "I think this happened because the photo and the diary both show it." If sources disagree, say where: "The memory says a week, but the newspaper says two days." Then name the next clue you would look for.

Choose something near you that you want to find out. Your question gives the investigation its shape. A small question is easier to explore with sources you can find.

Plan and collect

"What toys did Grandpa play with when he was 8?" is a useful question. "What did everyone in the world eat 1,000 years ago?" is too big for a small project.

Grandpa was born in 1968. He turned 8 in 1976:

Plan to interview him. Look for a childhood photo, a toy he kept, and a toy catalog from that time. An old catalog shown online is still a source from its own time.

Keep a clue record

For each source, record four things: its name, whether it is first-hand or second-hand, what it tells you, and what it cannot tell you.

Ask Grandpa about how often he used these toys. A catalog shows toys offered for sale. It does not show which ones he owned.

Compare and answer

Put the clues side by side. Does Grandpa’s memory match the photo and toy? Write an answer that names your evidence: "Grandpa played with a bike and toy cars. He told me about them, the photo shows his bike, and he kept a toy car."

Keep seeing and thinking clear. "The photo shows…" names an observation. "I think… because…" explains an idea. Add any question that remains, such as which game he liked best.

Share what you found

Make a poster, give a talk, or arrange a small class museum. Write labels that explain the objects. Your new labels are second-hand explanations about Grandpa’s childhood.

A timeline can put the sources in order: Grandpa’s birth in 1968, the photo in 1976, and 2026. In 2026, the photo was 50 years old: