The library of the National Council of Women should also be mentioned, which carries out an intense work of education and teaching: it has obtained the official recognition of its diplomas as secretary, translator, teacher of declamation, languages, etc.
Archives. – The main Argentine historical archive is the Archivo general de la nación, founded in 1821. Both during political unrest and during periods of tranquility, the archive suffered from serious negligence. Don Manuel Ricardo Trelles (1852-1858) was one of the most talented directors: he published a Revista del archive and an index of the documents of 1810. He later began the publication of the decisions of the old municipal council and of the documents on the precedents of the revolution and on the war of independence.
Other important historical archives are those of the Miter museum, the courts, the ecclesiastical curia, some ancient parishes, etc. Each provincial capital has its own archive; the province of Buenos Aires intends to concentrate its own in the provincial historical archive of La Plata. At present, the reorganization of all these institutes is progressing rapidly as a result of increased research by scholars.
The most important non-historical archive is the administrative one.
Libraries. – The oldest Argentine library is the Nazionale, founded in 1810 on the initiative of Mariano Moreno. It was affected by the ups and downs of the town; but, as soon as the national organization was consolidated, it had a regular life.
The library has published six volumes of the catalog of printed matter, that of periodicals and that of manuscripts. Among these, in addition to the many originals, there are numerous copies of the archive of the Indies. The National Library has about 400,000 volumes; in 1926 it was attended by 94,209 readers, who consulted 160,906 volumes.
Second in importance is the library of the University of La Plata, especially rich in ancient works and newspapers, from the collection of Antonio Zinny. It has no printed catalogs.
In the University of Buenos Aires, three great libraries should be mentioned: that of the faculty of law, with approximately 70,000 volumes; that of the Faculty of Medicine, which has almost 100,000, and that of the Faculty of Philosophy with 55,000 works; the first has suspended the publication of its catalogs for more than ten years, the second has published one of the theses and another of the magazines, the third has recently finished publishing his.
According to directoryaah, some universities have important specialized libraries: that of geography, that of surgical clinic, that of pharmacology, etc., and the library of the college annexed to the university deserves to be mentioned.
Notable for its rich collection of ancient books is the library of the Miter museum, formed by the general of the same name; it has 46,000 volumes, and in 1907 it published an inventory.
The National Education Council has the National Teachers’ Library, next to which the Republic’s first children’s library works.
Throughout the republic there are 1117 popular libraries and 29 school libraries, which are helped by the Protecting Commission of Libraries, which in 1926 distributed 227,386 volumes.
Museums. – The most important museums of the capital are that of natural history, founded in 1823, with rich sections of zoology, paleontology, botany, mineralogy and geology, archeology and ethnography, numismatics and anthropology: it publishes Anales e Comunicaciones ; the historical museum, founded in 1889, mainly military, in which there is the most important collection of memories of men and events prior to 1880; the Miter museum, which houses everything that refers to General Miter; the municipal museums and Fernández Blanco, dependent on the municipality; the ethnographic one of the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters, very rich in archaeological and ethnographic collections.
In the territory of the Republic, the museum of La Plata, founded in 1884, is one of the most important in the world, with 66,000 numbers distributed among the various sections of anthropology, archeology, ethnography, zoology, botany, geology and physical geography, deserves special mention. petrography and mineralogy, paleontology and biology; he publishes Anales and Revista since 1890. Also noteworthy is the historical museum of Luján, recently founded, but already very rich not only in military relics, but also in numerous documents for the history of society; the provincial museum of Córdoba, the natural history museum of Tucumán, that of Mendoza, the Sarmento museum of San Juan, in the very house where that illustrious man was born, etc.
Other cultural institutions. – In the capital there are the Popular Institute of Conferences and the Asociación amigos del arte. The first organizes a cycle of weekly conferences and publishes the Anales throughout almost the whole year, the second organizes art exhibitions, concerts, conferences, etc. El circulo di Rosario, which publishes a magazine, has the same purpose. In the rest of the Republic, each important center has its own university or culture society, with a library, conference rooms, etc.
In the field of teaching, the grandiose college of El Salvador, directed by the Jesuits, stands out for their organization, where, starting from 1911, the Accademia della Plata was established, which publishes the monthly magazine Estudios: the Seminario Conciliar, directed by Jesuits and raised to the rank of Pontifical University; the Protestant institution Escuelas e institutos filantrópicos argentinos, the schools of the Conservación de la Fe, the Sacred Face, the Sociedad de educación industrial, the Casa del Bambino, the Luz society, etc.
