The purpose of this article is to carry out a comparative analysis of two classic works of the Brazilian history of education. The first is the book published by José Ricardo Pires de Almeida, entitled Public Instruction in Brazil (1500-1889): history and legislation first published in 1889; the second relates to Book A Instruction and Provinces – Volume 1 of Amazonas to Moacyr Primitive Alagoes, published in 1939. In this analysis, we intend to explain the characteristics and understand the theoretical and methodological concepts that have guided the construction of the authors’ writing. For the analysis, we recall the public inquiry in the period of the Empire in the Province of Rio Grande do Norte, after the additional Act of 1834. Michel de Certeau’s deliberations (1982) on relations between history and writing have embraced our research into making authors’ history. Carrying out this study highlighted the importance of the works for the field of education history and showed that the records were permeated by the political and cultural relations at the time, linked to the practices of recording and compiling information, primarily official, advocated by the Brazilian Historical and Geographic Institute (IHGB). The central focus of these papers was state actions in the field of education.