the archive is located in the political and cultural hub of the city, in praça da república, in downtown rio de janeiro where the mint was originally located - the institution was originally set up as the public archives of the empire, and was established in 1838, with the goal of keeping public documents safely guarded, whilst being organized into the administrative section and the legislative section.

in 1893, the archive was renamed as the national archives, and reorganized into different sections. over the years the archive was restructured a number of times, but one thing remained the same - its dedication to the preservation of the national files, which included documents of great interest and importance.