Arquivo Central Universidade Federal do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (UNIRIO)

History and Founding

The Arquivo Central (Central Archive) of the Universidade Federal do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (UNIRIO) was established by Resolution No. 815 of 20 December 1990, making UNIRIO among the first Brazilian federal universities to create a formal archival unit governed by systematic archival policy principles. The archive's creation was notably anticipatory: it predated the national archive legislation (Law No. 8,159 of 8 January 1991) by approximately one month, and its founding statutes already incorporated provisions for supervised internships and academic integration with UNIRIO's Archival Science programme.

UNIRIO itself has complex institutional roots. It grew from the Federação das Escolas Federais Isoladas do Estado da Guanabara (FEFIEG), which was created to integrate a group of traditional standalone institutions including the Escola de Enfermagem Alfredo Pinto, the Escola Central de Nutrição, the Conservatório Nacional de Teatro, the Instituto Villa-Lobos, and the Escola de Medicina e Cirurgia do Rio de Janeiro. After the 1975 merger of the states of Guanabara and Rio de Janeiro, FEFIEG became FEFIERJ. In 1977, the pioneering Curso Permanente de Arquivo of the Arquivo Nacional (National Archives) — Brazil's first Archival Science programme — was incorporated into FEFIERJ. In 1979 the federation was transformed into the Universidade do Rio de Janeiro (UNIRIO), and in 2003 its name was changed to the Universidade Federal do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, retaining the UNIRIO acronym.

Role and Collections

The Arquivo Central coordinates UNIRIO's entire archival system, supervising sectoral archives distributed across the university's various units. It is responsible for receiving, assembling, selecting, arranging, describing, conserving, and making available for research all documents of historical, legal, patrimonial, technical, and administrative value produced by the university or otherwise officially incorporated into its holdings. The collection is predominantly composed of textual records (manuscript and printed), supplemented by iconographic, cartographic, audiovisual, and electronic materials.

Given UNIRIO's distinctive institutional lineage, the archive also preserves materials connected to Brazil's first Archival Science programme, its oldest Museology school (founded 1932), and to cultural institutions including the Conservatório Nacional de Teatro and the Instituto Villa-Lobos.

Access and Usage

The Arquivo Central is located at Rua Mariz e Barros, 775, Tijuca, Rio de Janeiro, and operates as a supplementary organ linked to the university's Rectory. Researchers and administrative users can access the archive during regular working hours.