ARCHIVE / SOURCES / PROVENANCE
Documentary archive
A curated first layer of documents already verified and used by the museum. It is not yet the complete catalogue of the corpus.
- Records
- 9 curated records
- Objects
- 10 documentary objects
- Corpus
- 50 source IDs in the canonical map
VIDEO / VOICES / PUBLIC MEMORY
Audiovisual archive
Six preserved audiovisual records with date, author, provenance, preservation copy, and timestamped transcript.
COLLECTION MAP
Five ways into the archive.
These are not closed folders: one story may cross several areas. The categories are orientation tools before entering the records.
FROM DOCUMENT TO BIOGRAPHY
The archive is not an appendix to the story.
Public biography summarizes; the archive makes verification possible. A school register can establish a position, a salary, and an institutional structure. A case file can show what happened in litigation without forcing us to accept every later version. A deed or chain of title can separate the verifiable history of a house from memories later attached to it. In this project, documents are not stored at the end as “bibliography”: they are part of how each claim is built.
That is why the visible collection is organized through five entrances —education, works, biography, law, and house—, although these boundaries are only navigation aids. The same document may touch several layers of Serafina’s life. A Colegio Mercantil register, for example, can speak at once about education, work, personal networks, and everyday economics; a property record may matter both to the house and to Honoria’s biography.
This page does not attempt to display everything in the working corpus. It currently presents 9 curated records and 10 documentary objects, while the canonical map uses 50 source identifiers. The difference is deliberate: we publish as museum objects those items with sufficiently clear context, provenance, and reproduction conditions, while keeping the rest in the research layer until they can be described more fully.
SOURCE REGISTER
Sources in context.
Each record preserves the document, its provenance, and its rights note, while keeping visible the distance between the source and any later interpretation. What the archive attests and what the project infers from it remain separate.
Document titles, shelfmarks, citations, provenance labels, and identifiers remain in the corpus’s canonical Spanish when they are part of the source record.
AV-DOC-001Education
Colegio Mercantil de Niñas administrative register · 1906
An administrative sheet from the National Archives identifies the Colegio and its administrators in July 1906.
Form of the Girls' Mercantile College Public archive document reproduced for consultation and research purposes. The image does not replace the comparison with the original.
Related eventsBIO-EVT-0012AV-DOC-002Education
Colegio Mercantil curriculum · 1910
The institutional file and curriculum document how the Colegio was formalised and changed in 1910.
Curriculum of the Mercantile College Public archive document reproduced for consultation and research purposes. The image does not replace the comparison with the original.
Related eventsBIO-EVT-0020AV-DOC-003Works
Humanismo · reference edition
Bibliographic record and working master for the 2007 commemorative edition; the complete facsimile is not hosted on this site.
METADATA ONLY
HumanismoThe master file is registered in the working corpus but is not published as a facsimile in this version.
No built-in playback: Playback permission is pending and the master is not hosted on the site. Any future facsimile requires authorization and comparison with an original copy.
Related eventsBIO-EVT-0014AV-DOC-004Biography
Paraguayans of Today · Serafina Dávalos, pp. 187–188
A biographical account written close to her lifetime, preserved as historical testimony, including its errors and discrepancies with the documented chronology.
Paraguayans of Today · biographical entry, pp. 187–188 
Paraguayans of Today · p. 188 Printed work from 1921 reproduced for reference and research purposes. It is presented as evidence, not as authority on the canonical map. Printed work from 1921 reproduced for reference and research purposes. Statements from the original preserved without editing.
Related eventsBIO-EVT-0021BIO-EVT-0028AV-DOC-005Law
Boletín de los Tribunales · 1920
A printed page documenting Serafina's professional activity in legal practice.
Bulletin of the Courts · well-proven argument 1920 print reproduced for reference and research purposes from a publicly available Google Books digitization.
Related eventsBIO-EVT-0021AV-DOC-006Biography
PBT no. 171 · portrait and article, 1908
A press item identified and preserved through a modern reproduction; obtaining the 1908 original remains an open task.
METADATA ONLY
PBT 171 · Distinguished guestsThe master file is registered in the working corpus but is not published as a facsimile in this version.
No image can be shown publicly with this record for now. The photograph available to researchers reproduces a page from a 2025 edition. The image file, checksum and page reference are retained; reproducing the image publicly requires permission or access to the original document from 1908.
Related events—AV-DOC-007Law
Primer Congreso Femenino Internacional · 1910
Serafina's own words document that she practised law independently in May 1910.
METADATA ONLY
First-person legal practiceThe master file is registered in the working corpus but is not published as a facsimile in this version.
Minutes published in 1911 and treated in the corpus as a public domain source; This file documents the passage without reproducing the complete work.
Related eventsBIO-EVT-0019AV-DOC-008House
IPS · documented chain of ownership of Casa Serafina
An official 2026 response incorporating a 1963 deed: key evidence for distinguishing the documented chain of ownership from unresolved gaps.
METADATA ONLY
IPS · built-in chain of ownership and writingThe master file is registered in the working corpus but is not published as a facsimile in this version.
IPS/Senate official response. The parent PDF, extracts, page images and OCR controls are preserved in the working corpus.
Related eventsBIO-EVT-0033AV-DOC-009Biography
El Diario · 1925 report on property and work
A contemporary press profile about property and work, preserved with its reproduction history and limits as evidence.
METADATA ONLY
El Diario · wealth and work profileThe master file is registered in the working corpus but is not published as a facsimile in this version.
The original of El Diario continues to be an acquisition target; the reproduction chain is preserved in the corpus and is not presented here as an original facsimile.
Related eventsBIO-EVT-0021
PRINCIPLES
How to read this archive
- Document ≠ interpretation. The source is presented as evidence, while critical reading remains separate from it.
- Provenance and rights travel with each object. Archive label, locator, local path, and reproduction note stay with the item at every stage.
- Open questions remain visible. Uncertainties in the corpus are marked explicitly rather than silently resolved.