The article explores to what extent historical archives at museums may serve as documental sources in developing audience research. It analyzes the process by which we construct our knowledge of the relation between museums and their different visitors and also contextualizes the emergence of 'audience' as a category and object of study by the social sciences. The article presents Luciana Sepúlveda Köptcke and Marcelle Pereira's Guia de fontes primárias: o Museu Nacional - seu público no século XIX e no início do XX (Guide of primary sources: the National Museum - its audience in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries), a valuable research tool that can enhance the significance of documental fonds and reveal the nature and import assigned to different audiences by these institutions.
audience studies; National Museum of Rio de Janeiro; source guide; Brazil
