Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro

Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro (IHGB), Brazilian research center characterized by its patriotic historiography and amateur scholarship. Its origins date to 1838 and are associated with the beginnings of Brazilian romantic nationalism, a milieu heavily indebted to contemporary French ideas and institutions. The institute was founded under the official protection of the emperor Pedro II, who often presided over its meetings. Founders included celebrated literati, imperial statesmen, and associates of the French Institut Historique. Establishment backgrounds remained the rule through the monarchy and the Old Republic (1889–1930). The IHGB continues to include members of traditional elite families, including the former dynasty, and to enjoy an official link to the national government.

The mission of the institution was to strengthen the new empire by identifying it with, and defining, the national past. To that end, the IHGB has collected, organized, and published historical and geographical documents and has established relations with similar foreign organizations. It has also published the Revista do Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro, which since 1839 has been fundamental to Brazilian studies. The IHGB library has more than 100,000 volumes; its archives hold 50,000 documents and 5,000 maps. Among its great strengths, perhaps foremost, is its material on the monarchy and its personal archives for statesmen of that era and the Old Republic.

See alsoVarnhagen, Francisco Adolfo de .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Rollie E. Poppino, "A Century of the Revista do Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro," in Hispanic American Historical Review 33, no. 2 (1953): 307-23.

Manoel Luís Salgado Guimarães, "Nação e civilização nos trópicos," in Estudos Históricos 1 (1988): 5-27.

Additional Bibliography

Adonias, Isa. Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro: 150 anos. Rio de Janeiro: Studio HMF, 1990.

Losada, Janaina Zito. Desejos e melancolias: Uma história da idéia de natureza no Brasil, 1839–1870. Curitiba: Aos Quatro Ventos, 2000.

                                         Jeffrey D. Needell