Brazil National Archives:

Brazil's Federal Historical Archive is managed by the Ministry of Justice. It provides online access to national databases, indexes, catalogs, and migration information (There is limited information online. There are lists of information for on-site research). This source lists additional relevant research sites. It also, provides information about on-site research and reference services, as well as policies for using materials from the national archives.

It includes a very rich section on virtual exhibits, containing photographs and manuscripts concerning various subject topics. Also, the archives include a specialized section in Portugese-Brazilian History, the "Arquivo Nacional e a História Luso-Brasileira". It is available through digital publications that are listed on this page, and the catalog listing titles for sale is available here.

Instituto de Patrimônio Histórico e Artístico Nacional (Iphan): This is Brazil's federal institution and part of the Ministry of Culture, intended to preserve the country's cultural patrimony. 

Primary Sources Guides, pertaining to the "Projeto Resgate Barão do Rio Branco”:

The "Projeto Resgate Barão do Rio Branco" was a project led by the Brazilian Government to recover, collect and make primary sources related to Brazil's colonial period accessible. Given diverse factors including bureaucratic, historical and even climatic ones, primary sources from the years 1500 -1822 were not stored in the Brazilian National Archives. Instead, historical material from this era was scattered in national and private archives spread throughout Europe and the United States, without any guidance about which material was held, where, nor how to access it. Therefore, by 1995, to celebrate Brazil's 500 years, the Brazilian Ministry of Culture led "Projeto Resgate" (Project Rescue), which, through intense international collaboration, researched, organized, cataloged, and reproduced (in microfilm and digital formats) the most important primary sources held in Portugal, France, Spain, Holland, Italy, Ireland, Austria and the United States. The Projeto Resgate began by recovering Brazilian documentation held at the Arquivo Histórico Ultramarino (AHU) in Lisbon, and at universities, libraries and other archives. The project then expanded to perform the same job job in the countries mentioned above. Up to today's date,"Projeto Resgate" produced 64 catalogs of Captaincies and other Series held at the AHU, eight primary source guides, two cartographic catalogs, one catalog of iconography, over 3000 microfilm rolls and 316 CD-ROM discs. Find more information about this project at Brazil's National Digital Library and at the Centro de Memória Digital of the National University of Brasilia.

All of the material recovered in Portugal from the Arquivo Historico Ultramarino at Lisbon was made available online in 2004, through the Centro de Memória Digital of the National University of Brasilia (UNB). It includes a database holding 1.5 million of images of historical documentation held at the AHU which is the major repository of historical documentation outside Brazil, especially on this country's colonial and imperial periods. The website of the Projeto Resgate of the Centro de Memoria Digital provides open online access to all of these digitized primary sources. The primary sources guides published in this project from Spain, France, England, Ireland, Italy, Holland, and the United States are available at our University Library, and listed in this guide's "History" section.

Note: To search material, click the item "Sistema de busca" in the column located at the left side of the website.

Brazil's Biblioteca Nacional Digital also provides a description and online access to materials from the Projeto Resgate.

 Ecclesiastical and Secular Sources for Slave Societies (Brazil): The "ESSSS project" is directed administered at Vanderbilt University,'s department of History. It digitally preserves endangered ecclesiastical and secular documents related mainly to Africans and Afro-descended peoples in the Americas. Other non-European groups, such as Chinese and indigenous groups are also represented. This site provides online access to digitized records from Brazilian locations like Cabo Frio, Magé, Antônio de Sá, Araruama, Bonito, Paróquia de Nossa Senhora dos Milagres de São João do Cariri, and the Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Paraibano. Most documents date from the XVIII century, but there are some drom the XVII. The ESSSS Project also contains records from Cuba, Colombia, and Spanish Florida.

Centro de Pesquisa e Documentação de História Contemporânea do Brasil: This organization is affiliated with the Fundación Getulio Vargas (FGV).  This site's publications' section provides online access to articles, images, book chapters, technical reports, theses, working papers, and more. The institutional repository of the FGV works as this institution's digital catalog, and also facilitates access to a broad variety of electronic resources.

Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística - IBGE:  This is Brazil's National Institute of Statistics and Geography, which is the main institution collecting, organizing and providing data to national statistics on different fields, like population and demography, economic data, geographical sciences. This is a very valuable data repository providing public online access to a great amount of data.

Family Search Wiki on Brazil Catholic Church Records: This site provides online access to Catholic Church Records related to Brazil from the colonial to modern era, dating back from 1598 to 2013. These records contain a particularly rich detail on records related with enslaved and free Africans registered in Brazil. Records are broken down by captaincy

Brazilian Newspapers at NewsBank: Search some of the most prominent Brazilian newspapers' recent issues at NewsBank  and historical publications at NewsBankArchives. This newspaper database is available to the entire campus community, by subscription through our UIUC Library.

Periódicos de Brasil: This website lists Brazilian newspapers and magazines. The search functions is available by state, major topics, and main Brazilian cities. This site provides links to the newspapers' websites.

Brazil in LANIC (Latin American Network Information Center): ​LANIC is one of the largest guides for Latin American content on the web. This site lists relevant research resources and websites arranged by topic. Topics include the African Diaspora, Agriculture & Ranching, Arts & Culture, Economy, Business, Education, Environment, General Resources, Government, Law and Politics, Health, History, Human Rights, Social Justice, Immigration & Migration, Indigenous Peoples, Labor, Media & Communication, Religion, Science & Technology, Sports, and others.

Please note that as of July 2015, this page is no longer being actively updated or maintained.