The Instituto Antártico Argentino was created in 1951 and began its activities by establishing a permanent base in Marguerite Bay, which was named “Base General San Martin”. In January 1955 it built a second base, called “Base General Belgrano”, on the Filchner Ice Shelf (lat. 77° 58′ S., long. 38° 50′ W.). Since the southern summer of 1952–53 the Institute has regularly sent a party of about twenty-five scientists to carry out field work with the annual Argentine navy Antarctic expedition. On 26 January 1956 the Institute was transferred to the Ministerio de Marina as an autonomous scientific and technical organization, not a component of the navy, and with the object of studying the nature of the Antarctic. Shortly after, it established itself in an old residential building owned by the government, at calle Cerrito 1248, Buenos Aires.