Race, gender and class in Rio de Janeiro in the 1870s through the eyes of traveler Herbert Smith

Authors

  • Sérgio Roberto Massagli Universidade Federal da Fronteira Sul - UFFS
  • Antonio Marcos Myskiw Universidade Federal da Fronteira Sul

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.48075/rlhm.v20i36.33383

Abstract

Herbert H. Smith was a naturalist who studied Brazil’s flora and fauna. He first came here in 1870 on the Morgan expedition, led by the famous Professor Charles Frederick Hartt. Then, in 1874, he returned to spend a year exploring the Amazon and Tapajós rivers. At the end of this expedition, he went to Rio de Janeiro, where he stayed for another four months. Back in the United States, he worked for Scribner's Magazine, writing articles about Brazil based on his travel memoirs. These writings later were collected in the book Brazil, the Amazon and the Coast, published in 1979. The aim of this paper is to read the chapter “Social Life at Rio”, from that book, in order to identify the traveler's perceptions of the Brazilian capital in the 1870s, which help to understand historical structural problems regarding race, class and gender in Brazil.

Author Biographies

Sérgio Roberto Massagli, Universidade Federal da Fronteira Sul - UFFS

Doutor em Estudos Literários. Universidade Federal da Fronteira Sul. Lattes: http://lattes.cnpq.br/1153231475774488

Antonio Marcos Myskiw, Universidade Federal da Fronteira Sul

Doutor em História pela UFF. Coordenador do Programa de Pós-Graduação em História, da Universidade Federal da Fronteira Sul (UFFS), no campus Chapecó/SC; Atualmente é professor Associado da Universidade Federal da Fronteira Sul – UFFS.

Published

30-12-2024

How to Cite

MASSAGLI, S. R.; MYSKIW, A. M. Race, gender and class in Rio de Janeiro in the 1870s through the eyes of traveler Herbert Smith. Journal of Literature, History and Memory, [S. l.], v. 20, n. 36, p. 1–19, 2024. DOI: 10.48075/rlhm.v20i36.33383. Disponível em: https://e-revista.unioeste.br/index.php/rlhm/article/view/33383. Acesso em: 9 jul. 2025.

Issue

Section

PESQUISA EM LETRAS NO CONTEXTO LATINO-AMERICANO E LITERATURA, ENSINO E CULTURA