essay about primary source in philippine history

Philippine and Filipino American History & Heritage

• Databases & Journals
• Primary Source Databases & Historical Newspapers
• Web Resources

Where Can I Find These Materials?

Hornbake Library houses the campus's Archives and Manuscripts as well as its special book collections, maps and some microfilmed newspapers. The materials in this library are non-circulating, which means that they must be read in the special research room in Hornbake, the Maryland Room .  The Maryland Room has different hours than the library itself, so double-check them before you plan your visit. If possible, call ahead so that the librarians can have the materials on reserve for you.

McKeldin Library also houses some microfilmed periodicals in its designated Periodical Room on the first floor.

Click here for a campus map showing library locations.

What are Primary Sources?

Primary sources are usually defined as first hand information or data that is generated by witnesses or participants in past events.  Primary sources are characterized not by their format but rather by the information they convey and their relationship to the research question.  They include letters, diaries, journals, newspapers, photographs, and other immediate accounts. The interpretation and evaluation of these sources becomes the basis for research.

These materials are often located in the Special Collections of a library, rather than in the general collection. On this page, you will find some primary sources available to you at the UMD Libraries about Filipino Americans in the Greater Washington, DC, area and the history of the Philippines.

To learn more about primary sources, including how to cite sources, visit the tutorial, Research Using Primary Sources .

Image Citation: Mariano Peji and Filipino sailors at the U.S. Naval Academy posed in basketball uniforms circa 1926. Donated by Nila Toribio Straka. Available in the UMD Libraries Digital Collections as part of the Filipino American Community Archives . 

Archives & Manuscripts at the UMD Libraries

Archives and Manuscripts

Archives and manuscripts include unpublished diaries, correspondence, financial records, and other materials "created or received by a person, family, or organization, public or private, in the conduct of their affairs." ( SAA glossary ).  Below is a list of materials related to Philippine and Filipino American history and heritage at the UMD Libraries.

• Filipino American Community Archives The Filipino American Community Archives documents Filipino American communities in the Washington, D.C., Metro area (including Maryland and Northern Virginia) and in the state of Maryland more broadly. The collection also documents significant historic events related to the transition of U.S. occupation of the Philippines (1900-1947) to the country's independence, including Filipino military and government service under the U.S. in the two World Wars. Included are evidences of historic special events such as dances, celebrations and receptions, and social/professional clubs of D.C. area Filipinos
• Baltimore News American collection The Baltimore News American was an active daily newspaper that existed in various forms for over 200 years. The last issue was printed on May 27, 1986. The University of Maryland Libraries has custody of the newspaper's collection of over 1.5 million photographic images, dating roughly from 1906 to 1986. The collection encompasses images of all aspects of the human experience - people, places, and events from Baltimore to the world. There are many images in the collection of the Philippines during and after World War II. There is also a picture from 1971 of the Katipunan Filipino American Association and there are likely photographs of individual Filipinos and Filipino Americans.
• Eleanor Davies Tydings Ditzen Papers Eleanor Tydings Ditzen was the daughter of Ambassador Joseph E. Davies, the step-daughter of Marjorie Merriweather Post, the wife of U. S. Senator Millard Tydings, and the mother of U. S. Senator Joseph E. Tydings. The collection includes Millard Tydings's diary of his 1946 trip to the Philippines as well as some other travel information.
• Millard E. Tydings Papers Millard E. Tydings was a Maryland politician who served in the U.S. House and Senate. Series 4 of his papers includes reports, awards, pamphlets, plans for Philippine rehabilitation and development, and correspondence generated by Tydings in his years of service on the Commission on Territories and Insular Affairs. It also includes records and news clippings from his three trips to the Philippines (1934, 1945, 1946), the last of which was on the occasion of Philippine Independence Day.
• George C. Wilson Collection George C. Wilson (d.2001) was a music educator, band director, Director and Vice-President of the National Music Camp at Interlochen, Michigan. In 1973 he assisted Imelda Marcos with the development and planning of the Philippine Center of the Arts, which would later open in 1976.
• UMD University Archives The University Archives captures the day-to-day functioning of a highly complex research institution in all its many facets: administration, academics, athletics, the arts, and other student activities. Information about Filipino Americans who have attended and worked at the university may be found in sources such as yearbooks, student publications, directories, and other resources. In particular, the University Publications collection contains materials documenting the Filipino American Cultural Association (UPUB S34 F1) including flyers, brochures, a few newsletters, and one program for a cultural event.

Primary Sources at Other Institutions in Maryland and the DC Area

• Library of Congress - Asian-American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Collection Selected holdings from the Asian American Division at the Library of Congress.
• Library of Congress - Juanita Tomayo Lott Collection (1939-2011) Author, analyst, demographer, and statistician. Lott’s career spanned the nonprofit and private sectors at the National Academy of Sciences and Tamayo Lott Associates along with a federal career. She served at the United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, the United States Commission on Civil Rights, and the United States Census Bureau. The collection includes audio-visual materials, meeting notes, newspaper clippings, pamphlets, photographs, publications, reports, research, subject files, transparencies, and manuscripts about demographic changes, racial classification, the Asian American and Pacific Islander communities, multicultural curriculum, and the status of women.
• Library of Congress - The Clemente C. Cacas and Leo C. Toribio Family Archives (1939-2011) Contact the Prints and Photographs Division for more information.
• National Archives - Philippine Archives Collection The Philippine Archives Collection constitutes an invaluable source of information on the Pacific war during World War II, particularly concerning the treatment of prisoners of war (POWs); military operations in the Philippines, 1941-1942; guerrilla warfare in the Philippines; and conditions in the Philippines under Japanese occupation.

Primary Sources at Other Institutions Outside Maryland and the D.C. Metro Area

• Filipino American National Historical Society (FANHS) Founded in 1982, the Filipino American National Historical Society (FANHS) documents and promotes Filipino American history through its archives, conferences, books, programs, films, art and more.
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• Last Updated: Jul 13, 2023 1:36 PM
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Philippine history from primary sources

Under the revised curriculum of the Commission on Higher Education, college-level Philippine history will be taught using primary sources. This means learning about an event in the past from the voice of a participant or eyewitness, or a contemporary source, like a newspaper or a legal document.

This is not new to me, because I have been teaching the Rizal course for many years using primary source documents rather than a textbook, because the best way to know Rizal is to read his novels together with his letters, diaries, poems and newspaper articles. And, because this generation is more inclined to images than text, one can know Rizal from his many photographs, starting from one taken around 1874 when he was a high school student in the Ateneo Municipal, all the way to Bagumbayan where he was photographed shortly before a firing squad deployed a volley that snuffed out his life on Dec. 30, 1896.

It is a pity that the Rizal course was often taught to develop rote memory: students forced by quizzes and tests to know his full name, the names of his siblings in reverse order, or even the name of his pet dog, rather than appreciating the life and work of a man rightfully considered the Father of the Filipino Nation.

Fortunately, Rizal’s work, all 25 volumes of it, have been translated from the original Spanish, German, French, etc., into English, Filipino and the major Philippine languages, making it possible to teach Rizal in Ilocano, Bisaya, Kapampangan, Cebuano, etc. All this was made possible through the 1961 Jose Rizal National Centennial Commission publications that are all in the public domain.

However, Rizal is not our only national hero, and the only way to know the rest of the gang is to read them. But today’s generation is separated from their past not because of time but more because of language. Fortunately, all the issues of the 19th-century propaganda paper La Solidaridad are available in English, in a hefty seven-volume set published by Bookmark in 1997. Much more are available from the National Historical Commission of the Philippines, which has been quietly publishing and reprinting key works by Apolinario Mabini, Marcelo H. del Pilar, Artemio Ricarte, Emilio Aguinaldo, Pedro Paterno, as well as 19th-century French travel accounts of the Philippines.

The most readable and visually engaging college-level references for Philippine history are unfortunately restricted to library use, and the full sets are too bulky to bring for bedside reading. The first of these is the 10-volume “Filipino Heritage: The Making of a Nation,” edited by Alfredo R. Roces, which is still useful even if it was first published way back in 1977 and should be updated using new research to bring the coverage from the post-World War II Philippines to the present. Second is the 10-volume “Kasaysayan: History of the Filipino People” that was published by Reader’s Digest in 1998; it has lucid text lavishly illustrated with many never-before-seen photos.

When I’m asked to recommend a one-volume readable survey of Philippine history, the first book that comes to mind is Patricio N. Abinales and Donna J. Amoroso’s “State and Society in the Philippines,” the second edition of which saw print in 2017.

Teaching Philippine history from primary sources is not new. The Jesuit historian Horacio de la Costa published “Readings in Philippine History” in 1965, a thoughtful and well-translated compilation of primary source materials arranged to tell the story of the Philippines. Following De la Costa’s example, fellow Jesuits John Schumacher, Miguel Bernad and Pedro Achutegu made some very good compilations that are now sadly out of print. Not to be outdone, Gregorio Zaide, the most popular textbook historian of his generation, published “Documentary Sources for Philippine History,” a 12-volume compilation of documents annotated with the assistance of his daughter Sonia Zaide, and now a standard reference.

The real challenge in teaching Philippine history using primary sources is the textbook that requires sifting through a mountain of material for documents that will engage and be relevant to a college-level student naturally averse to reading from physical books, much less textbooks.

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