A Museum in the Heart of Amazonia: One Man's Laboratory

Abstract

The Amazon Botanical Museum — Museu Botânico do Amazonas — opened in 1883 and closed in 1890. Despite its brief life, the Museum was the first scientific institution in the Amazon Province of Brazil. Directed by the Brazilian botanist João Barbosa Rodrigues, the Museum aimed to be a modern institution similar to natural history museums in Europe and the United States. In addition to taxonomic studies of botanical and ethnographic collections collected in the Amazon region, the Museum also intended to develop studies in applied botany in medicine and industry. This article explores some aspects of the history of the Botanical Museum and examines the importance of Barbosa Rodrigues’ individual agency in the Museum's organization and studies of the Brazilian Amazon. It also demonstrates that the Museum was fundamental to improving Barbosa Rodrigues’ career as a botanist and ethnographer in the context of emerging Brazilian scientific communities of the period.