The National Museum, in Rio de Janeiro (RJ), has just completed its 200 years of creation. The inaugural date of the oldest active museum in Brazil, now linked to the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), officially marks two centuries of the continuous presence of museums in Brazilian social life.
Created on June 6, 1818, by Dom João VI, 
responsible for the transfer of the Portuguese court to Brazil, the then Royal Museum – now located in the old Imperial Palace of São Cristóvão, in Quinta da Boa Vista – was designed to propagate knowledge and the study of natural sciences in Brazilian lands.
With a collection of over 20 million items, primarily related to the fields of Anthropology, Botany, Entomology, Geology, and Paleontology, the National Museum/UFRJ is the oldest scientific institution in Brazil focused on research and the memory of knowledge production, now recognized as a center of excellence in natural history 
and anthropology research in Latin America.
Since the establishment of the National Museum, museums have multiplied in the following decades throughout Brazilian territory, adopting different models, expanding their areas of action, and decisively marking Brazilian culture. Today, there are over 3,800 institutions increasingly open, focused on building and expanding dialogues, attuned to their communities, and aiming for sustainable development on all fronts.
Source: www.museus.gov.br