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REPRESENTATIONSREPRESENTATIONSREPRESENTATIONSREPRESENTATIONS OF BELÉMOF BELÉMOF BELÉMOF BELÉM

JORGE NASSAR FLEURYJORGE NASSAR FLEURYJORGE NASSAR FLEURYJORGE NASSAR FLEURY Address: Rua Antônio Basílio, 251 apto 302, Tijuca, Rio de Janeiro, RJ e-mail: [email protected]

ABSTRACTABSTRACTABSTRACTABSTRACT

In the summer of 1983 was held in Chicago, the Universal Exhibition. Some sensations of the event were the Ferris Wheel, the Frankfurt and Vienna sausage and even the Port Wine Kopke, one of the oldest in the region, between various works of art, literature, urban plans, photographs, buildings. Amid all this was the Brazilian delegation, appearing in their first international representation of the republican government. Ladislau Netto (1828-1894), director of the National Museum, was named vice chairman of this committee. The governor of Pará at the time was Lauro Sodré (1858-1944), a military engineer who had as master Bejamim Constant (1836-1891). Being a great supporter of studies, arts and science, sponsored the trip of some works by leading figures of Pará, which was the showcase capital of the rubber. These works have been recognized and published in book printing by The Knickerbocker Press New York, in the year of the Exhibition, entitled The state of Pará, notes for the exposition of Chicago. This book was translated by Jose Coelho da Gama Abreu (1832-1906), Baron of Marajó, a title he received for the good services rendered to the nation. Politician, historian and writer in Brazil, Gama Abreu had most of his education in Portugal, graduated in philosophy and mathematics from the University of Coimbra. As a great chronicler traveler, he traveled over the world, observing, analyzing and describing it. This article will address the representation of Belém in the works exhibited in this Exhibition. Making its link with technique, knowledge, technology and modernity, the representations show the face of a city planned by some prominent actors of the time.

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In 1893, Julio Siza (1841-1918), portuguese photographer, received a medal and a honor diploma of the U.S. government for his series of photographs illustrating the houses, industries and people of Guyana. In his collection included several different types and breeds of the country. He shown from chinese to the east indians, representing the imported working class, blacks showed the people that was taken from their land to serve as slaves, the savanna and forest indian tribes showed the natives of the country, there was still room for the spanish colonizers, french, scottish and english. Among children and adults Siza showed races, climatology, environment, among other things the country under review, giving a very important step to understanding the english of guyana and their habitat. Having Julio born in 1841 in the district of Braga, Portugal, starts working as a photographer by press time in the city of Porto, with

C i t i e s , n a t i o n s a n d r e g i o ns i n p l a n n i n g h i s t o r yC i t i e s , n a t i o n s a n d r e g i o ns i n p l a n n i n g h i s t o r yC i t i e s , n a t i o n s a n d r e g i o ns i n p l a n n i n g h i s t o r yC i t i e s , n a t i o n s a n d r e g i o ns i n p l a n n i n g h i s t o r y

Henrique Nunes. Soon he was going to Lisbon to increase its work with the photographic art. Siza spended 12 years of his life in Brazil, making pictures in the town of Belém opened a studio there called Photographia Amazônia, creating a collection of historical images important to the memory of the city.

While the official celebrations of the 400th anniversary of the discovery of America was occuring, Julio Siza received his honors in the middle of the summer of 1893 participating with his show at the Universal Exhibition in Chicago1. This shows, in an area of 277 hectares, located in Jackson Park, in six months received 27 million visitors to see what was displayed in different pavilions from different countries. While european countries exasperated by the partition of Africa and Asia, americans worried about an aggressive foreign policy. It was the realization of a nation in full industrial revolution, in order to confirm their superiority mainland, mainly to recover the prestige of the host city after its great fire. On the october 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th of the year 1871, newspapers around the world were concerned about one thing in common: the Chicago fire2. In 1870, having a population of about 300,000 inhabitants, this United States city, located in Illinois, was already the major supplier of grain, cattle and timber. Reason for buildings, homes and many local streets were built almost entirely of this material. In an unusually dry season, and dry winds spread a fire that was started in a barn.

The White City became the great symbol of United States beaux-arts. Consisting of a white "wall" of monumental buildings, the city became the major attraction of the exhibition, influencing the plans of the cities of Washington, Cleveland, San Francisco and Chicago itself. Another sensation was the monumental ferris wheel3 that could lead at the same time, two thousand passengers reaching a height of 80 meters, being currently among the 15th highest in the world. Now a days, the highest reaches 160 meters and it is located in China. Unfortunately, the panoramic wheel built for this exhibition has already been demolished. It was also exposed from the frankfurt 1 BURG, David F. Chicago´s white city of 1893. Lexington: University press of Kentucky, 1976. 2 KOGAN, Herman and Robert Cromie. The great fire: Chicago, 1871. New York: Putnam, 1971; MILLER, Ross. American apocalypse: the great fire and the myth of Chicago. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990; GREELEY, Samuel S. Memories of the great Chicago fire of October, 1871. Chicago: s/n, 1904. 3 FARRAH, Ibrahim. About the ferris wheel. In: Discussion of the introduction of the "Eastern aesthetic" and "oriental dance" to the American public at the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago. New York, 1993.


and vienna sausage, which later gave rise to the famous hot dog, to a port wine Kopke, one of the oldest in the region, through various works of art, literature, urban plans, photographs, buildings.

Amid all this was the brazilian delegation, appearing in his first international representation of republican government. Ladislau Netto (1828-1894)4, director of the Brazilian National Museum, was named vice chairman of this committee. Netto was a naturalist minded reformers who wanted to modernize the National Museum since 1860. Beside him was the brazilian architect Francisco Marcelino de Souza Aguiar, who was responsible for our representation, in designing the pavilion that housed the brazilians. Following the trend of other flags, wearing the same coat in white plaster, erected a monumental building and symmetrical, in eclectic style with strong classical elements. His exoticism came from the spiers crowning and some brazilian flags extended by domes, showing some national pride and republican spirit.

The governor of pará at the time was Lauro Sodré (1858-1944)5, a military engineer who had as master, the mason Beijamim Constant (1836-1891), which did defend the cause of the republic and the positive doctrine of Comte (1789-1857 ), for whom the axis was the progress. Being a great supporter of studies, arts and science, sponsored the trip of some work done by famous figures of Belém, which was the showcase capital of rubber. These works have been recognized and published in book printing by the Knickerbocker Press of New York in the year of the exhibition, entitled The state of Pará, notes for the exposition of Chicago. This book was translated by Jose Coelho da Gama Abreu (1832-1906), baron of Marajó6, a title he received for the good services rendered to the nation. Brazilian writer, polititian and historian, Abreu had most of his education in Portugal, majoring in philosophy and mathematics from

4 DUARTE, Abelardo. Ladislau-Netto, 1828-1894. Maceió: Imprensa Oficial, 1950; NETTO, Ladislau, 1838-1894. . . . Le Muséum national de Rio-de-Janeiro et son influence sur les sciences naturelles au Brésil. Paris: C. Delagrave, 1889. 5 SODRÉ, Lauro. As industrias extrativas: a função do governo. Rio de Janeiro: Imprensa Oficial, 1901; SODRÉ, Lauro. Crenças e opiniões. Belém: Diário Oficial, 1896; SODRÉ, Lauro. Palavras e atos. Belém: Diário Oficial, 1896 6 MARAJÓ, José Coelho da Gama Abreu, barão de. A Amazonia, as provincias do Pará e Amazonas, e o governo central do Brasil. Lisboa: Livraria Antiga e Moderna, 1883; GAMA ABREU, José Coelho de. As regiões amazonicas : estudos chorographicos dos estados do Gram Pará e Amazonas. Lisboa: Imprensa de Libanio da Silva, 1895.


the University of Coimbra. As a great chronicler traveler, he traveled over the world, observing, analyzing and describing it7.

The book translated by the baron had in its list of contributors: Ignacio Batista de Moura, writing about the history of Pará and also about the industries; Alexander V. Tavares, reporting the types and forms of public instruction; Pedro da Cunha, speaking about the renovations and public comerciarias; Alberto Torrezão, arguing on agriculture; Manoel Odorico Nina Ribeiro, in an interesting commentary on the forms of communication and transport represented with historical photos and a project for the urban area of Belém done by him; and still a great, rich and rambling description by Henrique Santa Rosa on the physical description narrated from a cartographic map.

If this exhibition to would take place today, probably the brazilian delegation would have a profile somewhat different from that presented at the time. We would observe the undisputed presence of artists displaying paintings, songs, dances such as samba, stamp, frevo and forró, mulatto showing their bodies; complete battery of samba school, indians, folk art, all flavors caipirinhas, and a plethora of typical elements and traditional ethnicity and all of latin culture in Brazil. It would emphasize the mixed culture of our people. However, in the world's Columbian Exhibition of 1893, brazil wanted to take and show the world the men of science, the goal was to show everyone that the country also produced what was being done elsewhere in the world, wanted to show the modernity.

In this context, Santa Rosa did an analysis over a map of the region of the state of Grand Para. In this survey appeared punctuated the cities and rivers that make up the landscape of the locality. Approaching this geography, needed to contrast it with his knowledge of engineering produced on time, which led him to conceptualize the region's progress, referring here to connect this word with the positivism of Comte. Based upon the ongoing work that generated the context of civilization, it makes use of quotes and musings to clarify the information given in the description of the map. Throughout his text, he discusses the various issues involving the physical environment and its location, boundaries, population, surface, climate, temperature, sanitation, an issue of boundaries,

7 GAMA ABREU, José Coelho. Apontamentos de Viagem, 1874-1876. Lisboa: s/d.


topography, involving the whole hydrographic channels, lakes, bays, islands and vast rivers that cross the region. This last topic, not surprisingly, is the theme that most stretches, passing much of his writing journey creating a great debate with their sources on the subject.

Santa Rosa did a good dialogue with dissenting opinions. Some of people who traveled through the region and saw and felt as he really was and others that just looked at your location by using only your latitude and longitude. He criticized those who forgot to examine the map as a whole and assess the situation surrounding cities, basic information that can read and understand through the mapping and many despised. Henrique Morize (1860-1930), who later became director of the National Observatory in 1908 and was also the first president of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences in 1916, divided Brazil in thermal areas classified as equatorial, tropical, subtropical and temperate8. The Pará was situated in the equatorial zone, so called tropical, which left him in the same group of much of the northeastern states and the north. This zone, also called torrid, encompassed almost all parts of Brazil that the temperature exceeded 25 degrees Celsius.

Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913), a welsh naturalist, geographer, anthropologist and biologist, who had direct contact with Darwin, traveled through the Amazon collecting species and left several writings on the region. Wallace left several illustrations, photographs and writings about his travels, discoveries, views and ideas of progress and civilization9. In one of them commented that "the climate of the amazon valley is remarkable for its uniformity of temperature and relative humidity regularly" in his speech said there is "six months of rain and six months dry season," saying that none of these stations is "so severe as in many other tropical regions." completing his thought said to be the Pará an exception to this rule being that the equatorial climate of this place "is so changed that I believe to be among the most pleasant climates of the globe"10.

Referring to the passages discussed in the text, Santa Rosa who criticized claims made without looking at the least. He retorted by

8 MORIZE, Henrique. Contribuição ao estudo do clima do Brasil. Rio de Janeiro: Imprensa Nacional, 1922. 9 WALLACE, Alfred R. The progress of the century, New York, London: Harper & Brths, 1901; 10 WALLACE, Alfred Russel. In Santa Rosa, 1893, p.21


saying that if you analyze it easy, they would realize that something was indicated by the presence of almost daily rains, the constancy of the solar wind by modifying the action, giant forests purify the air and the multitude of rivers that cross the immense valley and fertilize the soil. Few people were the ones who analyzed all the facts. The mapping can be considered bad specious and tendentious, but just a brief look at the statement addressed to realize the presence of dull rivers that washed the region.

This multitude of rivers, mostly navigable, and its geographical proximity to large comercial centers worldwide over the southeast of Brazil, made Pará fill the eyes of the people by their looks promising, as Francis Castelnau (1812-1880)11, a traveler who toured south America watching and describing it, said that "this beautiful province of Pará will certainly one day be the richest in south America"12. Or even through a dialogue that sets Santa Rosa with Herbert Smith (1862-1938), a naturalist who traveled through the region, making a theoretical reception of his writings on Belém said that "the city having a destination: the city of the future, still will enrich the world with their trade", risking even saying that "one day, perhaps, will still be the true metropolis of Brazil". Based this on the idea of the "Rio de Janeiro to be away from the commercial world, a good five thousand miles away from New York and Europe" and thus the Pará would benefit by being "closer distance at least half" of this center13.

Figure 2: MAP of the state of pará and its watershed. [The state of pará, notes for the exposition of Chicago, 1893, p.29]

11 CASTELNAU, Francis. Expédition dans les parties centrales de l'Amérique du Sud, de Rio de Janeiro à Lima, et de Lima au Para; 1843-47. Paris: 1850 12 Santa Rosa. The state of Pará, notes for the exposition of Chicago. Knickerbocker Press New York,1893, p.27 13 SMITH, Herbert in. Santa Rosa, 1893, p. 27


Still on the map we can see the strong presence of the Tocantins river, in the opinion of James Orton (1830-1877), naturalist who traveled through south America in 1867, was a magnificent river that watered the region where he was more delightful climate in brazil, ran over a bed of diamonds, rubies, sapphires, topaz, gold, silver and oil. Antonio Baena, in his chorographic essay, claimed to have this river twenty-six tributaries in its course. Santa Rosa, during his analysis also portrayed a passage where it said Ferreira Pena to know the Tocantins river is necessary to visit him in different seasons, because it showed different aspects during summer and winter.

It is precisely on this aspect, and the navigability of the rivers, which Nina Ribeiro begins his article on media and transportation. "Flying" the Amazon river, he compares it to the Ganges, the Euphrates and the Nile, commenting that this rivers, with the initiation of steam transport, marked its first days of a promising future. Nına had to portray the ancient civilizations and its rivers have become myths as the Ganges in India, the Euphrates in Mesopotamia and the Nile in Egypt14, to compare their bases on the 1st commercial-style river that took the amazon region.

Manoel odorico Nina Ribeiro praised the free navigation of the Amazon. Exacerbated with the idea of the Amazon river to be the flag of all nations, carrying different products, with the possibility of the emancipation of slaves, and the alleged order and progress in constitutional politics as the initiation of the great Amazon civilization. Alexander Von Humboldt (1769-1859)15, a german scientist who traveled to latin America between 1799 and 1804, illustrates that "it is there that one day, sooner or later, will focus on the civilization of the globe"16. Ribeiro believed that the interlinking of rivers contributed to this mysterious el dorado, a region richer than Asia, also located between two oceans, the same distance from Canada, central

14 DARIAN, Steven G. The Ganges in myth and history. Honolulu: University press of Hawaii, 1978; ESPINOSA, Javier. Entre el Tigris y el Eufrates. Málaga: Centro Cultural de la Generación, 2004. 15 HELFERICH, Gerard. O cosmos de Humboldt. Rio de Janeiro: Editora Objetiva, 2005; LÓPEZ SANCHEZ, José. Humboldt y su época, em homenaje al bicentenário de Alexandro de Humboldt. La Habana: Museo Histórico de las Ciências “Carlos J. Finlay”, 1969. 16 HUMBOLDT, Alecander Von, in Nina Ribeiro, 1983, p. 130.


Europe and southern Africa. Behind it was a great connection between the countries through the various rivers.

"The work multiplies its strength without end", with Nina this passage connects the growth of cities, especially Belém, with the need for new resources to meet demand (Nina Ribeiro, 1893: 132). The Amazon, in the era of industry could not escape the benefits of science. Labor, capital, credit, convenience, exchange, speculation, all stood with science in search of a healthy relationship of production. Electricity, steam navigation, freedom and law were active in the major centers of economic transformation. All this was reflected in possibilities and increases in technology and transportation. The railroads were implemented to better exploitation of healthy centers. The locomotive brings with regularity, frequency, speed and relatively low prices. In this context the link was established between Belém and Bragança, which linked the capital to the northeast of the state.

Engineering was announcing the civilization and progress, which can be seen when it made reference to photographs of the city produced at the time as shown in the photographs displayed. These were taken from angles and lighting that these improvements highlight the city dwellers, showing various plans and frameworks in public buildings, paved streets, tram lines, port and well thought out landscaping and tree planting, always adapting to the climate. It was a kınd of subliminal advertising, where the government showed the photos to make both the city's inhabitants, like the population of the world, knew and appreciated what was beautiful in that city, as well as a photograph that shows the following below, where it appears the commercial port at the bottom and an entire apparatus for receiving this charge, the picture still appear the carriages and horses as well as urban structure as mentioned above, showing the paved road and the rails of the tram line.


Figure 3: Unknown fotographer and date. View from the commercial point and view of the port in Belém. [The state of pará, notes for the exposition of Chicago, 1893, p.67]

Even when maps were produced, as the one raised by the Nina Ribeiro, showed these technological advances and building designed or produced for the city. In the photos were obtained favorable angles to visible elements of the city, as in a street where the tram line passes and the Theater in the background. As provided in the photo below, where in many plans appear in the same image, the paved road, the railroad tracks to its perceived vanishing point accompanied by trees and street lighting. On the right side bordering the promenade is a well defined row of houses in European style, on the opposite side, the square with its newly deployed and landscaping in the background, on another plane, the Paz Theater, a cultural temple.

Figure 4: Unknown fotographer and date. Tram line in the Republic Avenue, the current Presidente Vargas Avenue, in the background the Paz Theater. [The state of pará, notes for the exposition of Chicago, 1893, p.69]

Along with the new products came new markets, with these, new plants, with these, new technologies, with all this sum, growth in the region and cities and a need to plan for it. It was with this intention


that Nina Ribeiro, who was then engineer of the board, surveyed the town of Belém by order of the town council of the quadrennium 1883-1886. In this work, also presented at the Chicago Exhibition and discussed in the text, we find elements instituted by the modernity that was installed, as well as elements that were brought from the colonial era. We noticed on his map, this colonial heritage, an appreciation of the public space with the presence of many squares. Some of those that no longer exist and others that were never implemented. Nina is also concerned to emphasize the high and low ground, separating and defining the areas of floodplain and land, which has always been a constant in the amazon basin because of its uniformity of relief.

The improvements elucidated on the map were not perceived to mere passers-townsmen, or not properly perceived by them. As shown in the plan of the town of Belém raised by Nina Ribeiro below, which shows the complexity and size of the tram lines or even the underground improvements such as sewerage and water supply. On the map, we can detect a concern with the proper collection of the topography of the region, showing the high and low land, now with the thought in the supply system of the city. In the fıgure that follows Nina designs various and large plazas where he apply very green and includes a landscaping ideals of good printing and dissemination of the city.


Figure 5: Manoel Odorico Nina Ribeiro, 1883. Map raised by Manoel Odorico Nina Ribeiro, at the request of the town council's 1883-1886 quadrennium [The state of pará, notes for the exposition of Chicago, 1893, p.97]

Still on the map we also see that the modernity mark in Ribeiro´s article exposed through the markings of the railroad to bragança and streetcar lines broad gauge and narrow. The intercity rail leaving the big city center crossing and followed her to the full output of the same. Trams built your path almost never coincide with those taking the course northeast of the state. Despite the large area that these trams do not circulate, they comprised well the parts of the city which they proposed to run, especially comerciarias and port areas, where traffic was more intense.

The exhibited works have shown the important state of nature and modernity that is installed in the amazon region. In a mutual work and complementing these maps and photographs, that did this on U.S. soil, carried with them a grandeur of information that could not be expressed only through written reports. Imbued with cartographic and photographic techniques of the time, the amazonians exposed to the world knowledge, technology and modernity that settled in northern Brazil in the late nineteenth century. Makıng use of a whole repertoire of cognitive time, they embarked for the north to show the world who also wrote and lived like the rest of the globe.

Some people imbued with making decisions, especially in this case, the items in the State of Pará that was brought to the Universal Exposition in Chicago, chose to show the world a specific face of the city. An interpretation and idealization of the state capital in the eyes of a few. It is important to understand here that what was presented and discussed in this work, which was taken to the said exhibition, is the outline of a look. It is a specific representation of the city of Belém in that moment by the eyes of some people. Turns out to be a specific representation of Belém at the Universal Exhibition of Chicago.

REFERENCESREFERENCESREFERENCESREFERENCES

BAE, Youngsoo. Labor in retreat: class and community among the men´s clothing workers of Chicago, 1871-1929. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2001

BURG, David F. Chicago´s white city of 1893. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1976;


CASTELNAU, Francis. Expédition dans les parties centrales de l'Amérique du Sud, de Rio de Janeiro à Lima, et de Lima au Para; 1843-47. Paris: 1850

COUDREAU, Henri Antole. Voyage au Xingu. Paris: A. Lahure, 1897

DARIAN, Steven G. The Ganges in myth and history. Honolulu: University press of Hawaii, 1978

DUARTE, Abelardo. Ladislau-Netto, 1828-1894. Maceió: Imprensa Oficial, 1950

ESPINOSA, Javier. Entre el Tigris y el Eufrates. Málaga: Centro Cultural de la Generación, 2004

FARRAH, Ibrahim. About the ferris wheel. In: Discussion of the introduction of the "Eastern aesthetic" and "oriental dance" to the American public at the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago. New York, 1993.

GAMA ABREU, José Coelho. Apontamentos de Viagem, 1874-1876. Lisboa: s/d.

GAMA ABREU, José Coelho de. As regiões amazonicas : estudos chorographicos dos estados do Gram Pará e Amazonas. Lisboa: Imprensa de Libanio da Silva, 1895.

GREELEY, Samuel S. Memories of the great Chicago fire of October, 1871. Chicago: s/n, 1904.

HELFERICH, Gerard. O cosmos de Humboldt. Rio de Janeiro: Editora Objetiva, 2005

HUMBOLDT, Alecander Von, in Nina Ribeiro, 1983, p. 130.

KOGAN, Herman and Robert Cromie. The great fire: Chicago, 1871. New York: Putnam, 1971

LÓPEZ SANCHEZ, José. Humboldt y su época, em homenaje al bicentenário de Alexandro de Humboldt. La Habana: Museo Histórico de las Ciências “Carlos J. Finlay”, 1969.

MARAJÓ, José Coelho da Gama Abreu, barão de. A Amazonia, as provincias do Pará e Amazonas, e o governo central do Brasil. Lisboa: Livraria Antiga e Moderna, 1883

MILLER, Ross. American apocalypse: the great fire and the myth of Chicago. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990

MORIZE, Henrique. Contribuição ao estudo do clima do Brasil. Rio de Janeiro: Imprensa Nacional, 1922.

NETTO, Ladislao, 1838-1894. . . . Le Muséum national de Rio-de-Janeiro et son influence sur les sciences naturelles au Brésil. Paris: C. Delagrave, 1889.

PRUSSIA, Príncipe Adalberto da. Brasil: Amazonas – Xingu. Brasília: Senado Federal, 2002

SANTA ROSA, Herrique. The state of Pará, notes for the exposition of Chicago. Knickerbocker Press New York,1893


SODRÉ, Lauro. As industrias extrativas: a função do governo. Rio de Janeiro: Imprensa Oficial, 1901

SODRÉ, Lauro. Crenças e opiniões. Belém: Diário Oficial, 1896

SODRÉ, Lauro. Palavras e atos. Belém: Diário Oficial, 1896

WALLACE, Alfred Russel. The progress of the century, New York, London: Harper & Brothers, 1901

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