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The importance of this archive lies in the significance of its principal creator, Carlos Chagas (1878-1934), one of the most renowned scientists in Brazil, twice nominated for the Nobel Prize. The international recognition that he received in his lifetime relates to his discovery, in the state of Minas Gerais in 1909, of a disease transmitted by a protozoan, hitherto unknown, which he named Trypanosoma cruzi. The disease is transmitted by an insect, popularly known as "barbeiro", which multiplies on the mud walls of the rural dwellings of the poor.

The Carlos Chagas archive deals with the multiple dimensions of a professional career intertwined with science, public health, projects and debates about the nation, and as such its impact is not only in medicine but in the broader social sphere of Brazil. It is a fundamental source for researchers interested in understanding how science and public health in Brazil were organized and institutionalized and how they interacted with the Brazilian society and the international sphere of the time.

The disease that Carlos Chagas discovered is emblematic, and it was through these contributions to tropical medicine that Brazil came to take its place in the movement for the universalization of science that was conceived at the beginning of the 20th century, and that gave origin of the tradition of excellence in scientific research in the country.