PARES | Spanish Archives

Identification

Type:

Person

Preferred form:

García Rives, Ángela (1891-post. 1968)Other forms

Dates of existence/Biographical dates:

Madrid (España) 1891-06-02 - 1968

History:

Ángela García Rives was a Spanish archivist and librarian. She belonged to a family of librarians and her father was the State Librarian. She studied Secondary Education at the Instituto General y Técnico de Cardenal Cisneros, as well as her brothers Moisés and Luis. After that, she studied Education at the Normal School of Madrid and she kept studying at the Colegio Nacional de Sordomudos y Ciegos (National College of the Deaf and the Blind). Some years later, she graduated in Philosophy and Literature from the Central University, obtaining the Extraordinary Prize of History specialization in 1912. Moreover, in 1917 she got a PhD with a thesis about King Ferdinand VI and Queen Barbara de Braganza. She was the first woman who joined the Corps of Archivists, Librarians, and Archeologists in 1913 and, later on, her brother Luis joined the Corps too. In 1912, she was assigned to the Public Library of Jovellanos, Gijón, and to the Archivo General Central of Alcalá de Henares (Central General Archive). Finally, in 1915, she was assigned to the National Library of Spain (BNE) and she worked there for 46 years, until her retirement in 1961. She started working at the BNE together with her colleague Manuel Machado, who was a journalist and a poet. After the Spanish Civil War, she was readmitted and in 1942 she was appointed Chief of the Cataloging Department. In 1962 she was given the ruling position in the Command of the Civil Order of Alfonso X, the Wise.