The Mitre Museum () in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

, is a

museum A museum is an institution dedicated to displaying or Preservation (library and archive), preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private colle ...

dedicated to Argentine history, as well as to the legacy of former President of Argentina,

Bartolomé Mitre Bartolomé Mitre (26 June 1821 – 19 January 1906) was an Argentine statesman, soldier and author. He was President of Argentina from 1862 to 1868 and the first president of Argentine Civil Wars#National unification, unified Argentina. Mitre i ...

. The museum building is a Spanish colonial house built in 1785. It first appears in Argentine history as the refuge of the last Viceroy of

Río de la Plata The Río de la Plata (; ), also called the River Plate or La Plata River in English, is the estuary formed by the confluence of the Uruguay River and the Paraná River at Punta Gorda, Colonia, Punta Gorda. It empties into the Atlantic Ocean and ...

Baltasar Hidalgo de Cisneros Baltasar Hidalgo de Cisneros y de la Torre (6 January 1756 – 9 June 1829) was a Spanish Navy officer and colonial administrator. He took part in the Battle of Cape St Vincent and the Battle of Trafalgar, and in the Spanish resistance against ...

, following the

May Revolution The May Revolution () was a week-long series of events that took place from 18 to 25 May 1810, in Buenos Aires, capital of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata. This Spanish colony included roughly the territories of present-day Argentina, ...

of 1810. In 1860 the house was rented by General

in 1860, and was his residence during his tenure as the 6th

President of Argentina The president of Argentina, officially known as the president of the Argentine Nation, is both head of state and head of government of Argentina. Under Constitution of Argentina, the national constitution, the president is also the Head of go ...

between 1862 and 1868. In 1868 the house was purchased and donated to Mitre by a group of local citizens in recognition of his term as president, as well as for his contributions to national unity; he lived there until his death in 1906. ''

La Nación ''La Nación'' () is an Argentine daily newspaper. As the country's leading conservative newspaper, ''La Nación''s main competitor is the more liberal ''Clarín (Argentine newspaper), Clarín''. It is regarded as a newspaper of record for Argen ...

'', one of the nation's oldest and most influential dailies, was published here from its establishment in 1870, until 1895.

Overview

The house was purchased by the National Government via Law 4,943, in June of that year, and on June 3, 1907, the Mitre Museum opened its doors to the public. The museum's first director, Alejandro Rosa, had founded the Western Hemisphere Historic and Numismatic Society with Mitre in 1893, and following the classification of Mitre's extensive

ethnolinguistic Ethnolinguistics (sometimes called cultural linguistics) is an area of anthropological linguistics that studies the relationship between a language or group of languages and the cultural practices of the people who speak those languages. It exa ...

library,

numismatic Numismatics is the study or collection of currency, including coins, tokens, paper money, medals, and related objects. Specialists, known as numismatists, are often characterized as students or collectors of coins, but the discipline also inclu ...

and other collections, the society was located in the museum from 1918 until 1971 (it was rechartered as the National Academy of History of Argentina in 1938). The historic archive of the museum is among the largest archives in Argentina due to its historic relevance, with about 53,200 files. Most of them were part of the Bartolomé Mitre's private collection. The library has about 100,000 items including books, magazines, CDs, DVDs, and microfilms. The museum was declared a National Historic Monument on May 21, 1942,El Museo Mitre, un refugio que conserva la memoria del país
on ''La Nación'', 3 June 2007 and is maintained by the National Secretariat of Culture. The museum can be seen on some Argentine two peso bills.

References

External links

* {{Authority control National Historic Monuments of Argentina Houses completed in 1785 Museums established in 1907 Museums in Buenos Aires Biographical museums in Argentina Historic house museums in Argentina