C. F. Hartt's Contribution to Brazilian Museums of Natural History

Abstract

Charles Frederic Hartt (1840-1878), a geologist who took part in Louis Agassiz's Thayer Expedition in 1865, returned to Brazil several times during his life: a solo trip in 1867, two of his own expeditions (while he was professor of geology at Cornell University), the Morgan Expeditions of 1870 and 1871, and his final voyage, which started in 1874. Hartt is known for his opposition to Agassiz's glacial theory of the Amazon River basin, for his contributions to Brazilian geological knowledge, and for his rôle in the Geological Commission of Brazil. Lesser known are his contributions and links to Brazilian Natural History Museums, institutions which played an important and lasting role in the development of geological sciences in Barizl. In Brazil, Hartt combined enthnographical work with his geological explorations, and he continued the ethnographical work initiated by Domingos Soares Ferreira Penna, a naturalist from Rio de Janeiro Museu Nacional who later became the director of Museu Paraense. When the Museu Paraense opened in 1871, Hartt donated books and what became the museum's first geological collections: both North American samples and samples which Hartt had collected in the Amazon region, some of which were sent to the United States to be classified and then returned to Brazil. From 1876 to 1877, Hartt was employed by the Museu Nacional as head of the 3rd Section-Physical Sciences, Mineralogy, Geology and Paleontology, a position which enhanced his research, collecting, and his conferences. Even though Hartt had a three-year contract, he resigned after one year to devote all of his energies to the Comissão Geológica do Imperio do Brasil, the geological survey of Brazil which he directed. Despite his short official connection with the museum in Rio, Hartt's activities with Brazilian museums provide insight into the issues relating to the transfer and adaptation of institutional models from one country to another.