This question is presently unresolved. Interpreted literally our Original Research Policy would exclude such material, but I am gathering from conversations on this list that there is some feeling that the Original Research Policy should not apply to material of this nature. Perhaps this needs to be made clear at [[Wikipedia:No original research]]*
Fred
On Jun 7, 2005, at 11:38 AM, Matt Brown wrote:
However, the true point of contention in this, I think, will be how citable primary sources should be, and to what degree going to primary sources is original research. Published primary sources are probably fairly uncontroversial, but what about unpublished primary sources? E.g., to pick a topic of personal interest again, is citing documents that can be found in the California Railroad Museum's collection of Southern Pacific Railroad original documents acceptable, or is going through such a collection original research? The references are available to anyone who cares to go there, but they are not published.