This is an academic effort to rescue fragments of the construction process of an entity pioneering the representativeness of the Brazilian nursing - the Brazilian Nursing Association (ABEn), who completed 85 years of existence and created the first scientific journal of nursing, Nursing Annals, currently the Brazilian Nursing Journal, which celebrated 80 years in 2012. The contribution of ABEn for the scientific and professional development of nursing in the country is approached with analytical and critical humility and very timid perspective, since it was based more on information from secondary sources than on primary ones, according to an overview about what happen from 1926 to 2011. The subjectivity and selectivity of facts led us to highlight some instances of power over others, to highlight points of the development of Brazilian nursing as a discipline, profession and work field.
Nursing; Care; Professional Organization; ABEn
