[The ABEn and the professional memory preserving: the Brazilian Nursing Memory Centre implantation].

This is a historical-social study, which aimed to analyze and argue the on the importance of the Brazilian Nursing Memory Centre for preservation and publicity of the professional memory. As data sources it was used the documentary Associação Brasileira de Enfermagem: 1926-1976, and the Project of Implantation and the Technical Report of the Memory Centre's Documentary and Phonic Collection, both filed in the referred Centre. The data, collected in June 2013, were subjected to external and intern criticism, aiming to its validation. The analysis occurred concurrently with data collection and was made based on knowledge about the topic, supported by Bourdieu's concept of habitus. It was observed that, since 1926, the directions of the Brazilian Nursing Association contributed for the Memory Centre implantation, by means of the importance attributed to the preservation of the memory. It was concluded that the memory enshrined in the collection constitutes material and symbolic goods for the Brazilian nursing to be transmitted through the historiography derived from it.