in the early twentieth century, the archive underwent a major renovation, which was funded by various national and private companies, and assisted by unesco. the national archive has a separate office in brasilia, but the headquarters are still located in rio de janeiro, with an incredible collection of materials - together with its offices in brasilia has the largest collection of archives in the country.

included in the archive are over 55 kilometers of textual documents, an estimated 1.74 million photographs and negative, 4,000 caricatures and cartoons, 3,000 posters, 20,000 illustrations, and over 2,000 rare books, as well as numerous postcards, engravings, maps, films, and sound recordings.