Paths and senses in the creation of the Public Archive of Pará

The Public Archive of the State of Para (APEP) has become throughout its history one of the main guardians of the socio-cultural memory registered by the government which since the seventeenth century was in charge of the old state of Maranhao and Grand Para in Northern Brazil. Founded on April 16th, 1901 with the function of collecting and protecting relevant historical documents on the history of the Amazon and the state of Para, the APEP was born in the aftermath of modernity, in the midst of thriving republican ideas and the recollection of the concept of citizenship promulgated by the French Revolution. In this context, this article reconstitutes the senses, paths, functions and actions of this public institution, held up in the webs in which History, Memory, Heritage and Archivology intricate, in a continuous remaking of knowledge and political interests in the Amazonian world.