This article deals with the relation of the historian of education to archives, with the possibilities for research, with tensions that the archives introduce in the complex relation with the researcher, and with the potentialities of the Department of Public Archives of Paraná (DEAP-PR). It examines the archives as to the research tools available - the archive resources that contain documentation referring to public instruction in the province of Paraná -, as to the contents and types of sources that can be found in the corresponding resources, and as to the relevance of these archives for the writing of the history of education in the 19th century. The objective of this study is to analyze the documental resources of the archive, looking at them as a fertile working tool for the research in the history of education, particularly in what concerns the investigations about public instruction in the provincial period. Methodologically, the work that was carried out was that of mapping out in the DEAP-PR archives the possibilities of research in education offered by the various documental resources present in the archives, of bringing them together and of pointing out, based on the nature and characteristics of the empirical sources gathered, their analytic potential. To fulfill these objectives, the text dialogues with references from the field of history and history of education, and presents as results the organizing process itself, the analysis of the documental resources of the archives, and the research possibilities of studies about public instruction, in particular for the provincial period.
Paraná public archives; Public instruction; Empire
