Rodrigo Melo Franco

Rodrigo Melo Franco de Andrade (17 August 1898 – 11 May 1969) was a Brazilian lawyer, journalist, writer, editor and public administrator. He organized the Serviço do Patrimônio Histórico e Artístico Nacional (SPHAN) and directed it from 1937 to 1967. The agency later became the Instituto do Patrimônio Histórico e Artístico Nacional (IPHAN).

Under Andrade, SPHAN listed and restored buildings, prepared inventories and measured drawings, assembled document and photograph archives, created a specialized library, recovered works of art and opened museums. Its staff included writers, architects, historians and artists from Brazilian modernist circles, among them Mário de Andrade, Lúcio Costa, Manuel Bandeira, Carlos Drummond de Andrade, Oscar Niemeyer, Candido Portinari, Gilberto Freyre and Sérgio Buarque de Holanda.