National Historical Museum

The National Historical Museum offers its Historic Archives with 50.000 iconographic documents and manuscripts related to the History of Brazil and a Library with 57.000 works about history, arts, museology, heraldic, numismatic, genealogy and fashion.

It offers also a Portuguese-Brazilian Reference Center, connected to the Historic Archives, created in 1998, in the ambit of the commemorations for the 500 years of the arrival of the Portuguese to Brazil

The Library can be consulted Monday thru Friday from 10am to 5pm. For more details call (5521) 550-9251.

The Museum's Library comprises over 57.000 volumes, among which, rare works that, including those of the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, are characterized not oly for their antiquity, but also for the refined bindings, handwritten anotations of former owners, as well as out of stock editions or originals.

The high point are those that describe the great voyages made by foreign visitors with the purpose of learning the peculiarities of the Tropics. In addition to the original texts, critical reeditings of these sources that, in general, describe with details images that, in the european points of view, appeared as being entirely exotic. Aso included among the rare works, a collection of newspapers of the epoch, with publications of the 19th century, where the language of caricature was specially emphasized.

Accesible for consultation, the collections "College of Arms" and "Gustavo Barroso".Based on heraldry, the collection "College of Arms" presents works containing a vast iconography and also rare exemplars, such as a manuscript work, probably of the 16th century. The "Gustavo Barroso" collection offers the private library of the founder of the National Historical Museum, increased with critical works about his intellectual production. This collection contains elements for an accurate definition of the works of Gustavo Barroso that, among his multiple activities, was also a writer and member of the Brazilian Academy of Letters.

Deriving it its majority from the National Library, this special numismatic collection comprehends works dealing with coins, medals and stamps, including rare volumes of the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries in different languages (greek, latin, dutch and german, among others).

The "Miguel Calmon" collection is significntly representative of the litterary tendencies of the epoch, designated as "The Old Republic", that reflected the concerns, the values and the taste of a certain segment of the elite. Miguel Calmon Du Pin Almeida was designated Minister in two occasions of that period and his library and other objects were donated by his wife to the Museum, and privileges themes related to education, public works and agriculture.

Complementing the collection of typical garments and the iconographical documents donated by Sophia Jobim Magno de Carvalho, a precious collection of books and periodicals related to clothing can be consulted at the Library. It is an obligatory reading for those who research about fashion style in Brazil.

Undertaking, since its creation, the production and diffusion of knowledge, the National Historical Museum launched in 1940, the first volume of its Annals, a publication that circulated regularly until 1975.

After being discontinued for two decades, the edition of the Annals was resumed in 1995. Distributed in Brazil and overseas, the Annals constitute a reference material for researches in the field of human and social sciences. In 1999, with the support of the DocPro enterprise, a CD-Rom was launched and contains the complete collection of all Annals published, thus satisfying the innumerous requests for volumes that were no longer edited.

Supported by DocPro, the CD-Rom "Collection of Annals of the National Museum of History- 1940 to 1998", is now available.

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Acquaint yourself with the work undertaken by the Painting Studio of the Conservation and Restoration Laboratory, coordinated by Luiz Fernando de Carvalho Abreu and the support of Fundação Vitae, for the restoration of the "Alegoria da Agricultura" painted in 1922 by Carlos Oswald on the ceiling of the former Palace of Great Industries, for the Exposition for the Centenary of the Independence; today this hall is occupied by the Museum's Library.

Measuring 4 x 4m, in octagonal shape and divided in two parts, the painting suffered a great damage when, in 1994, one of the panels fell from the ceiling. .

Works began in September 1999, and the meticulous restoration included the repair of the canvas and the recuperation of the coat of paint, as well as the gypsum framework and the difficult task to replace the painting on the ceiling.