ATOM Historical Archive of La Merced. Mercedarian Province of Chile.
The Historical Archive of La Merced. Mercedarian Province of Chile (AHME) is the unit in charge of gathering, describing and valuing the documentation generated by the Curia and the different houses and convents of the Mercedarian Order in the Province of Chile. They are original works that give an account of the administrative life of the Order from the 17th century to the present day and depend directly on the provincial government.
The Historical Archive of La Merced, AHME, safeguards 150 meters of documents, equivalent to more than 3,500 documents, of which about 3,000 are manuscripts and the rest correspond to printed books that are grouped under the title of the General Fund.
The Historical Archive is organized into three funds. The documentation is mostly in paper format, although we can also find photographs (positive and negative photographs), slides, and digital files resulting from digitization projects.
Most of the documentation kept in the Historical Archive of La Merced has been produced by the houses and convents founded by the Order in the national territory, from the documents of the colonial administration to the archives of the current Curia administration, and has reached this archive as a result of the transfer of the different convents and houses of the Order in the country, therefore all the documentation is of its own production.
The documentary typology of the archive's collection includes, among others: minutes of meetings (provincial and convent chapters), correspondence, mass books, books of accounts and daily expenses, photographs, periodical publications, brochures, printed materials, copies of legal documents (contracts of sale and property titles, trials), books of visitors and books of chronicles. There is also a collection of writings produced by the friars of the Chilean province that include personal correspondence, sermons and talks, and others such as original manuscripts of works that were later published.
To a lesser extent, there are archives or documents corresponding to copies from the General Archive of the Indies (Spain) and from various archives in the country taken from colonial institutions, mainly from the Royal Court and the archives of the Ministry of the Interior and the Treasury of Chile, which refer to Mercedarian themes.
Documentary Funds: General Fund Old Fund Provincial Fund
The Provincial Fund is the largest and groups the following Sub-Funds:
Provincial Government Administration Sub-Fund
Convents Sub-Fund
Schools Sub-Fund
Cult/Third Order Sub-Fund
Vice Province Sub-Fund
Historical Sub-Fund
Writings Sub-Fund
Personal Archives Sub-Fund
Mercedarian-America Sub-Fund
Photographic Sub-Fund
Music Sub-Fund
Objects Sub-Fund
Access to the Archive and use of its Documentary Funds is regulated by the rules established in the Archive Regulations.