 The archives were established on August 28, 1821, by Governor Martín Rodríguez as the Buenos Aires Province Archive.The institution (AGN) 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.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.