ahr-sources-and-archives
Use when handling primary sources and archives for an American Historical Review (AHR) manuscript — distinguishing primary from secondary, criticizing sources, citing manuscripts and collections in Chicago notes, and clearing image permissions. The AHR judges history on the quality and criticism of its evidence. Strengthens source work; it does not invent archival material.
Profile →npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill ahr-sources-and-archives --agent claude-code
Same command for any agent — swap --agent for codex, cursor, copilot.
Weekly change comes from our own snapshots, not the repository page — it measures attention, not adoption.
# Sources & Archives (ahr-sources-and-archives) History at the AHR stands or falls on its **primary sources** and on how critically you read them. This skill is about marshaling evidence, **source criticism**, citing archival material correctly, and the author's responsibilities for images and permissions. It does not, ever, license inventing or embellishing a source. ## When to trigger - Assembling and citing the primary-source base for the argument - Deciding whether a source is primary or secondary for *your* question - A reader doubted your reading of a document or asked about provenance - Preparing images/figures and clearing reproduction rights ## Primary vs. secondary (it depends on your question) - **Primary:** evidence produced within the period/context you study — manuscripts, correspondence, records, newspapers, objects, images, oral testimony, material culture. - **Secondary:** later scholarly interpretation. A historian's monograph is secondary for events but can be a *primary* source for the historiography you analyze. ## Source criticism (the historian's core discipline) 1. **Provenance & genre.** Who made this, when, why, for whom? What kind of document is it, and w
- When to trigger
- Primary vs. secondary (it depends on your question)
- Source criticism (the historian's core discipline)
- Citing sources (Chicago notes — see ahr-citation-and-style)
- Images, figures & permissions (author's responsibility)
- Anti-patterns
- "The archival base is too thin": diagnosing the charge
- Worked vignette: reading against the grain
- Calibration anchors
- Output format
- Supplementary resources
What does the ahr-sources-and-archives skill do?
Use when handling primary sources and archives for an American Historical Review (AHR) manuscript — distinguishing primary from secondary, criticizing sources, citing manuscripts and collections in Chicago notes, and clearing image permissions. The AHR judges history on the quality and criticism of its evidence. Strengthens source work; it does not invent archival material.
How do I install it?
Run `npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill ahr-sources-and-archives --agent claude-code` — it drops the skill into your project so the agent can pick it up. Swap the --agent value for codex, cursor or copilot if you use one of those.
Where does this skill come from?
From brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills, a repository with 909 stars. We read it straight from the repository tree rather than a submitted listing, so what you see here is what is actually published.
Is a popular skill a good skill?
Not necessarily. Stars measure attention, not adoption — a repository can trend for a week and be abandoned. That is why we show the weekly change from our own snapshots next to the total, instead of a single flattering number.