A institucionalização do Arquivo Público do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul (1906-1910)

Abstract

Although the Public Archive of the State of Rio Grande do Sul is over 100 years old, the history of its origin is little known. There are studies on its physical headquarters, due to its architectural grandeur and technical capacity, but the reasons for its creation are not objects of study by the Archivists. Most of the studies that exist on the Institution were carried out by historians. This research seeks to answer some questions about its creation as an Archival Institution, rescuing details about its first years of life, the actors involved in its creation, their work routines and the main challenges encountered in the first years of activity, and what was the influence of positivism in this process. This research was developed by accessing documents from the Public Archive of the State of Rio Grande do Sul, in order to obtain information about its origin, structure and organizational chart. Part of the research was carried out in loco, as much of the documentation is not in digital media. The documents analyzed mostly refer to the creation and structuring of the Archive, among them are laws, decrees and regulations, available in the digital collection of the Memorial do Legislativo do Rio Grande do Sul, which also contains reports of the activities of the Public Archive, the APERS website, the first edition of the Revista do Arquivo Público do Rio Grande do Sul, published in 1921, available in the APERS collection, among others. It was possible to observe that since the first attempt to create the APERS, in 1948, the main objective of its creators was to gather and preserve in the same place important documents for the State of Rio Grande do Sul. We found that the collection of documents to the Archive did not take place smoothly, because as the volume of documents was large, complaints from those responsible for the Archive were constant regarding the lack of space and personnel for correct storage, cleaning, conservation and even even the verification by the servers of the collected documentation. The objectives of this research to analyze the historical social context and the ideology of the constitution of the Archive could be identified in the analysis of the documents located. Through the reports of the first managers of the Archive and the regulation of its creation, it was possible to verify the context of creation of the Institution and the agents involved. It was also possible to observe how positivism influenced the creation of the Public Archive, what were its objectives and what were the main difficulties encountered during the years 1906 to 1910.