Guia da Secção Histórica do Museu Paulista ( en, Guide to the Historical Section of the Paulista Museum) is a

guide book A guide book or travel guide is "a book of information about a place designed for the use of visitors or tourists". It will usually include information about sights, accommodation, restaurants, transportation, and activities. Maps of varying det ...

written by the historian and museum director

Afonso d'Escragnolle Taunay Afonso d'Escragnolle Taunay (1876 in Florianópolis, Santa Catarina, Brazil – 1958 in São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil) was a Brazilian writer, politician and noble. Biography Afonso was born in the ''Palácio Rosado'', the residence of San ...

. It is the first comprehensive description of the

Museu do Ipiranga The Museu Paulista of the University of São Paulo, commonly known as Museu do Ipiranga, is a Brazilian history museum located near the place where Emperor Pedro I proclaimed Brazil's independence on the banks of Ipiranga brook in the Southeast ...

, commonly known as the Paulista Museum, in

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for 'Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the GaWC a ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. It solidified the emphasis on historical materials in the museum, a position promoted by Taunay over his long tenure. The publication outlines the history, exhibition rooms and areas, and research conducted by the museum. The ''Guia'' was published in 1937 by the São Paulo Imprensa Official do Estado. Apart from a description of the museum, it contains photographic plates and a composition and arrangement of museum spaces and permanent exhibitions. The ''Guia da Secção Histórica do Museu Paulista'' is seen as a response to the work of

Rodolpho von Ihering Rodolpho Theodor Wilhelm Gaspar von Ihering (born Taquara, 17 July 1883; died 15 September 1939) was a Brazilian zoologist and biologist, who is considered to be one of the founders of Pisciculture in Brazil. von Ihering was the son of German zoolo ...

(1883-1939), the ''Guia das Coleccões do Museu Paulista'' ( en, Guide to the Collections of the Paulista Museum), published in 1907. Rodolpho von Ihering emphasized the natural history collections of the museum, and placed little attention on its historical collections. Rodolpho was the son of the director of the Paulista Museum,

Hermann von Ihering Hermann Friedrich Albert von Ihering (9 October 1850 – 24 February 1930) was a German-Brazilian zoologist. He was the oldest son of Rudolf von Jhering. Biography Hermann Friedrich Albert von Ihering was born in 1850 in Kiel, Germany, the olde ...

(1850-1930), who directed the museum from 1895 to 1916. Von Ihering, due to his German background, was dismissed from his position of director of the Museu Paulista in 1917 upon Brazil's entry into

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

on the Allied side. Taunay, as a historian and director of the museum from 1917 to 1945, disagreed with the focus of his predecessor and redesigned the Paulista Museum primarily as a history museum. Taunay used the guide to describe "in detail the symbolic meaning of each element" of the interior of the Museum. The ''Guia da Secção Histórica do Museu Paulista'' solidified his position on history and removed most references to the natural science collection of the museum. Only at the end of the work, in a few lines, did Tauney describe that the museum had twelve rooms dedicated to zoology, two to botany, and one of mineralogy and paleontology.

References

{{Authority control Museu do Ipiranga 1937 non-fiction books Brazilian non-fiction books