Nurturing Collecting and the Trade in Objects: The Formation of the Museu Paulista, 1850s–1910s

Abstract

Established in 1893 in the city of São Paulo, the Paulista Museum was the first public museum in the state of São Paulo, and Brazil's fourth museum. It was created as a governmental initiative amidst the growing participation of São Paulo in the international trade market through coffee exports. This article analyses the establishment of the Paulista Museum as an important agent in national and international networks of hunters, collectors, and merchants of natural history specimens in the first decades of its existence.