The General Archives of Puerto Rico was formally created by Law 5 of December 8, 1955 and placed under the

Institute of Puerto Rican Culture The Institute of Puerto Rican Culture ( es, Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña), or ICP, for short, is an institution of the Government of Puerto Rico responsible for the establishment of the cultural policies required in order to study, preser ...

which had been created six months before. The main function of the entity is to safeguard and conserve the most important inactive documents of Puerto Rico's territorial government, both under United States rule as well as during the 390 years of Spanish colonial government in Puerto Rico between 1508 and 1898. The General Archives shares space with the National Library in the Dr.

Ricardo Alegría Ricardo E. Alegría Gallardo (April 14, 1921 – July 7, 2011) was a Puerto Rican scholar, cultural anthropologist and archaeologist known as the "father of modern Puerto Rican archaeology". Early years Alegría was born in San Juan, Puerto Ric ...

Building facing the

Luis Muñoz Rivera Luis Muñoz Rivera (July 17, 1859 – November 15, 1916) was a Puerto Rican poet, journalist and politician. He was a major figure in the struggle for political autonomy of Puerto Rico in union with Spain. In 1887, Muñoz Rivera became part ...

Park in the

Puerta de Tierra Puerta de Tierra is a ''subbarrio'' (subdistrict) occupying the eastern portion of the Islet of San Juan and the ''barrio'' of San Juan Antiguo in the municipality of San Juan, Puerto Rico. The name Puerta de Tierra (Spanish for ''land gate'') ...

neighborhood, the first suburb of

San Juan San Juan, Spanish for Saint John, may refer to: Places Argentina * San Juan Province, Argentina * San Juan, Argentina, the capital of that province * San Juan, Salta, a village in Iruya, Salta Province * San Juan (Buenos Aires Underground), ...

. The building has served many purposes prior to housing the archives, including serving for a year as the Spanish Civil Hospital beginning in 1877, subsequently as a jail, an Orphaned Girls Home when sovereignty was transferred from the Kingdom of Spain to the United States, once again a hospital under American rule, subsequently a tobacco warehouse for the

Porto Rican American Tobacco Company Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropol ...

from 1906 to 1959 along with a Bacardí rum facility. In 1959 it was acquired by the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture. The archives currently hold 70 thousand cubic feet of storage space.

Archivists of Puerto Rico

* Luís M. Rodríguez Morales - 1955-1973, *Miguel A. Nieves - 1976-1989, *Luis de La Rosa Martínez - 1989-1994, *Karin Cardona de Jesús - 1995 *Nelly Cruz Rodríguez - 1995-1999, *Karin Cardona de Jesús - 1999-2008, *José A. Flores Rivera - 2009-2013, *Karin Cardona de Jesús - 2013-2017, *Lcdo. Samuel Quiñones García - 2017-2018, *Lcdo. Héctor A. Dávila Gómez - 2018-

References

External links

Archivo Virtual del Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña
{{authority control Government-owned corporations of Puerto Rico Puerto Rican culture History of Puerto Rico 1955 establishments in Puerto Rico Libraries in Puerto Rico National archives Education in San Juan, Puerto Rico

Archivists of Puerto Rico

See also

References

External links