Since it was created, the Colombian National Academy of History has worked towards rescuing, preparing and publishing relevant documents to the national past.In this sense, the publication of Francisco de Paula Santander papers, printed between 1913 and 1929, was the main project developed by the Academy.This article attempts both to show the negotiating process and the legal disputes that were in the base of editing Santander´s papers, and to evince the relevance the Academy gave to these documents as a way to legitimize the Republican political order.Furthermore, it arguments that the formation of historia patria as knowledge implied the creation of documentary collections that were not exempt of ideological considerations, and group and personal interests.A wide range of sources have been used to the writing of this article: institutional correspondence, reports, minutes, speeches, press reports and the some published volumes of the Santander's collection.