Archivo Patrimonial USACH Universidad de Santiago de Chile

History and Founding

The Archivo Patrimonial of the Universidad de Santiago de Chile (USACH) was formally established in 2009–2010, though its origins trace back to 2007 when architect Catalina Jara, while researching her master's thesis on campus architecture of the Universidad Técnica del Estado (UTE), discovered thousands of previously uncatalogued photographs and historical materials. Her work prompted a systematic effort to recover and organize materials that had been accumulating since the university's earliest incarnation.

The archive's holdings document three successive institutional identities of the same institution: the Escuela de Artes y Oficios (EAO, founded 1849), the Universidad Técnica del Estado (UTE, 1947–1981), and the current Universidad de Santiago de Chile (from 1981). This gives the collection a chronological span stretching from 1847 to the present.

Collections and Holdings

The archive custodies more than 170,000 photographs, 728 films on 16mm and 35mm reels, approximately 200 U-matic videocassettes, and 91 linear metres of textual archives. Its audiovisual collection encompasses material produced by the UTE's Department of Cinema and Television, the Central Television Education Laboratory of USACH, and the holdings of the former Cinemateca UTE — totalling over 500 hours of digitised footage. Notable special collections include the personal archive of renowned Chilean photographer Antonio Quintana, and the Fondo Isidora Aguirre, a dedicated digital repository of photographs, texts, and graphics documenting the life and work of the Chilean playwright Isidora Aguirre.

Relevance to Journalism and Media History

The archive's audiovisual holdings are particularly significant for the history of Chilean media. The UTE's cinema and television unit produced documentaries between 1972 and 1975 that captured social and political life immediately before and during the 1973 coup d'état. The archive has published a pedagogical book drawing on these films for use in secondary education. Graphic design materials from the Taller Gráfico UTE (1968–1973) document the visual communication strategies of a formative period in Chilean political culture.

Access and Usage

The archive operates under the Vicerrectoría de Vinculación con el Medio and is free and open to the general public. It is located at Fanor Velasco 43, Santiago (Estación Central). Opening hours are Monday through Thursday 09:00–18:00 and Friday 09:00–17:00. Guided visits can be arranged by appointment. Researchers and media producers may request materials by emailing the archive directly. Since its founding, the archive has secured 17 external funding projects and is a member of the Red de Archivos de Memoria y Derechos Humanos de Chile. The archive operates six functional areas: Coordination, Conservation, Digitisation, Documentation, Audiovisual, and Design.