Historic and Geographic Institute of Rio Grande do Sul

About

The Historic and Geographic Institute of Rio Grande do Sul (Instituto Histórico e Geográfico do Rio Grande do Sul), or IHGRGS, is a private non-profit institution based in Porto Alegre, and founded on August 5, 1920. Its main goal is to promote and spread the production of knowledge, especially focused on the state of Rio Grande do Sul. It went through several locations until it settled in the current building in Porto Alegre, inaugurated on March 25, 1972, which includes a research room, the Tomás Carlos Duarte Library, an archive room, the general library, the map library, and an auditorium with capacity for 150 people. The institute has two large bibliographic collections at its headquarters (about 150, 000 volumes in all), dealing mainly with the history and geography of the state, as well as anthropology, paleontology and folklore. In 2003, the Institute started informatizing its library. Until the 1950s, the IHGRGS was the main producer and diffuser of historical knowledge in the state, even more than the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS). In the 1930s and 1940s, with the celebration of the Ragamuffin War centennial and the historical congresses of Rio Grande do Sul, the IHGRGS reached its peak. However, from the mid-1940s on, there was a division between members who defended a renewal of the historiographical model and those who remained faithful

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