WordNet
n. writing having historical value (as opposed to fiction or myth etc.) [syn: historical paper, historical record]
Wikipedia
Historical documents are documents that contain important information about a person, place, or event.
Most famous historical documents are either laws, accounts of battles (often given by the victors or persons sharing their viewpoint), or the exploits of the powerful. Though these documents are of historical interest, they do not detail the daily lives of ordinary people, or the way society functioned. Anthropologists, historians and archeologists generally are more interested in documents that describe the day-to-day lives of ordinary people, indicating what they ate, their interaction with other members of their households and social groups, and their states of mind. It is this information that allows them to try to understand and describe the way society was functioning at any particular time in history.
Many documents that are produced today, such as personal letters, pictures, contracts, newspapers, and medical records, would be considered valuable historical documents in the future to such people. However most of these will be lost in the future since they are either printed on ordinary paper which has a limited lifespan, or even stored in digital formats then lost track over time.
Some companies and government entities are attempting to increase the number of documents that will survive the passage of time, by taking into account the preservation issues, and either printing documents in a manner that would increase the likelihood of them surviving indefinitely, or placing selected documents in time capsules or other special storage environments.
Usage examples of "historical document".
It is not permissible to evade this question, since in principle every historical document raises it, namely, what possibility of understanding human existence is shown and offered in each document of the Bible?
However dubious Williamsburg may be as a historical document-and it is plenty dubious-it is at least a model town.
Azhar Book Index shows entries through the Holy Church into present theology indicat ing that rather than being a historical document, this is an open ended collection And though the Missionana Protectiva was supposed to have ended long before the Atreides time the Panoplia Prophettcas Index indicates that it too is an open-ended current collection Hadi Benotto Director of the Dar es Balat Project, has requested that both collections be opened for research Judehic noted the curiosity that the Tleilaxu Godbuk Index was with the other two indices-a strange associa tion since the Bene Gessent Library has this item included in its Xenocultural .
I had been expecting some kind of rare historical document, something about Dracula.
Vor considered the Titan general's great work to be more than a literary masterpiece, closer to a holy historical document.
Publishers used to do it with a great show of indignation, purely out of a sense of duty to make available a historical document, then little by little they stopped apologizing and reprinted it with unrepentant pleasure.
The physicist, now in possession of an exceedingly valuable historical document, proceeds to burn it and apparently leaps from a seventh-floor office.
Tell me that a place contains a priceless historical document, and I expect a labyrinthine mansion on a hill, surrounded by an electrified fence and patrolled by armed guards.