The MAPA archive has a document collection called Fondo MAPA (MAPA base), formed by supports such as document texts on paper, photographs (positives, negatives, and transparencies), and audiovisual and sound supports.
The MAPA base features 3,000 inventoried documents related to the MAPA history and the management of its different directors, mainly from Tomás Lago and Oreste Plath’s term (1944-1973) and the dictatorship period. It allowed holding mail and institutional legal papers that show the Museum’s management and the connection with experts from different countries, documents about the organization and launch of the Chilean Folk Art Roundtable in 1959, and the fieldwork made in Quinchamalí as part of the American Folk Art Theory lectures in 1956, among many others related to exhibitions, as well as the circulation or donation of pieces in different contexts.
In addition, the MAPA base holds photographic supports (positives, negatives, and transparencies), which feature thousands of photographs with special relevance in the study of folk art. The images revive parties, dances, and landscapes taken by photographers and researchers from the institution and from outside. Some of them are widely recognized in Latin America and give great importance to popular artists and their production.
There are also images from field trips made by Tomás Lago and Oreste Plath, historic MAPA exhibitions, and exhibitions from other museums related to folk art and ethnography. Finally, in smaller quantities, there are audiovisual and sound supports, such as films and tape recordings with similar themes to those described above.