| Agency Name: | General Archive of the Nation |
| Nativename: | Archivo General de la Nación |
| Picture Caption: | Headquarters of the AGN in Buenos Aires |
| Formed: | as "Archivo de la Provincia de Buenos Aires" |
| Preceding1: | Archivo Gráfico de la Nación |
| Preceding6: | --> |
| Superseding6: | --> |
| Agency Type: | Archive |
| Jurisdiction: | Argentina |
| Headquarters: | Rondeau 2277 Buenos Aires |
| Minister7 Name: | --> |
| Deputyminister7 Name: | --> |
| Chief1 Name: | Emilio Konstantinovsky |
| Chief1 Position: | General Director |
| Chief9 Name: | --> |
| Parent Agency: | Secretariat of the Interior |
| Child25 Agency: | --> |
| Keydocument6: | --> |
The General Archive of the Nation (Spanish; Castilian: Archivo General de la Nación, AGN) are the national archives of Argentina. It is a body under the Secretariat of the Interior, which aims to collect, order and keep the documentation that the law entrusts to it, to spread knowledge of the sources of Argentine history.[1]
The archives were established on August 28, 1821, by Governor Martín Rodríguez as the "Buenos Aires Province Archive". In 1884 the archive's jurisdiction expanded to the entire country, being renamed "Archivo General de la Nación".[1]
The institution absorbed numerous historical archives, libraries, and other collections over the subsequent decades, and in 1957 acquired the National Print Archive, a bureau established in 1939.[1] Its collections occupy around 14 km (9 mi) of shelf stacks, and the AGN is a member of the Memory of the World Programme, a UNESCO initiative.
Operated by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the AGN is organized into five departments:
Housed within the former Congress building in 1906, the AGN was relocated to its present address at 246 Leandro Alem Avenue (a former National Mortgage Bank office designed by Arturo Prins, and completed in 1920), upon the inaugural of the new Mortgage Bank building in 1950.[1]
The headquarters cannot house the entirety of its vast collections, which include over 17km (11miles) of shelves of documentation;[2] the Intermediate Archive, for instance, was opened in another, nearby building. Plans were announced for the archives' transfer to the former ALEA Building, a Rationalist structure located behind the Alas Building that was ultimately sold to developer IRSA in 1998.[3] Construction was approved in 2012 for a new main building for the AGN, designed by Fabio Estremera, Luciana Deschamps and Javier Gavernet, and to be located on the site of the former Caseros Prison in the Parque Patricios district.[2]