National Historical Museum, History museum in San Telmo, Buenos Aires, Argentina
The National Historical Museum is a history museum in San Telmo housed in a colonial building. It displays military uniforms, weapons, artwork, documents, and personal items from leaders of Argentine independence.
The museum was founded as the Museo Histórico de la Capital on 24 May 1889 by Mayor Francisco Seeber, with historian Adolfo Carranza as first director and promoter. It was nationalized by a decree of President Carlos Pellegrini on 26 September 1891, taking its present name. After moves between rented houses and Santa Fe Avenue, it settled in 1897 in the Defensa 1600 mansion, sold to the city by Ángela Álzaga de Lezama; the house had been built for English merchant Daniel Mackinlay and enlarged by Charles Ridgley Horne.
The museum keeps the petition signed by neighbours on 25 May 1810 and invitations to the open cabildo of 22 May, along with the Macha flag, hidden by Belgrano's army after the 1813 defeat at Ayohuma and found in a Bolivian chapel in 1883. A fan belonging to Laureana Ferrari supplied the sequins for the Army of the Andes flag.
The museum is located on Defensa Street 1600 in an easily accessible area of San Telmo. It contains a research library with historical documents, maps, and photographs available for visitors and researchers.
The museum keeps the Macha flag, one of the earliest known Argentine flags, hidden by Manuel Belgrano's army after the 1813 defeat at Ayohuma and found in a chapel in Macha, Bolivia, in 1883. Its collection also holds a fan of Laureana Ferrari whose sequins were used to make the Flag of the Army of the Andes.
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