A civic session was held in the Peace Theater's performance hall to celebrate the establishment of the institute and presided over by Henrique Santa Rosa, 1st vice-president, with José Olinto Barroso Rebello as speaker.

Lauro Sodré and Joaquim Magalhães Barata were the honorary presidents, since they contributed greatly to the creation and consolidation of the IHGP during their governments in Pará.

In 1943, during Magalhães Barata's second administration, Belém City Hall donated the building that had belonged to the family of Domingos Antônio Raiol to the IHGP to serve as the institute's headquarters.

Silveira Netto, rector of the university at the time, became a benefactor of the organization, as did the governor of Pará, Alacid Nunes, who gave important support to the institute.

[3][4] In 1975, José da Silveira Netto assumed the presidency of the IHGP until 1996, when he was replaced on an interim basis by vice-president Victor Tamer.

Between 1995 and 1996, work was carried out to clean and organize the IHGP's documentary collection, which subsequently became the Palma Muniz Archive (Arquivo Palma Muniz), under the direction of professor and historian José Maia Bezerra Neto and archivist Ana Negrão do Espírito Santo and the sponsorship of the Cultural Foundation of the Municipality of Belém (Fundação Cultural do Município de Belém - FUMBEL) and UFPA.

[3] In 2001, a new provisional governing board, chaired by Guaraciaba Quaresma Gama and composed of members José de Araújo Mindello and Leônidas Braga Dias, was formed.

During the administration of Guaraciaba Gama, the renovation of the IHGP building was launched as part of the Monumenta Program, under the sponsorship of the Federal Government and Belém City Hall.

Her administration was characterized by surveying the institute's general situation, recomposing and reordering the membership by filling vacant chairs and launching the reorganization and restoration of the archive.

It includes contributions from Victorino Chermont de Miranda, Paula Caluff Rodrigues, Elza Lima, Luiz Braga, Armando Sobral, Anselmo Paes, José Neto and Pablo Mufarrej.