This paper is about the implantation of a bureaucratic management culture in Rio Grande do Sul - favoring the trajectory of Julio de Castilhos Museum, first museum created in the state at 1903. The analysis is centered on the factors that conditioned the removal of the initial naturalistic reference, inspired by etnografic museums from the beginning of the XXth Century, towards a regionalistic perspective of past reconstruction - stated officially in 1954's Regiment. From 1952 to 1958, under the direction of the historian and "folk scientist" Dante de Laytano, the museum becomes a resistent point against the partners of the Instituto Histórico e Geográfico do Rio Grande do Sul (IHGRS) and a recruiting nucleus for Comissão Gaúcha de Folclore, official representative of Campanha de Defesa do Folclore Brasileiro in the state. At this moment it starts to compete for the institucional allotment of the government with tradicionalistas, grouped around Instituto de Tradições e Folclore, created in 1954.
folklore; memory; regionalism; Rio Grande do Sul