Goeldi RA

In order to present this collection that unites art and science, using the Augmented Reality technology resource, we created this exhibition containing the species of Amazonian birds cataloged by the Swiss zoologist and scientist Dr. Emílio Goeldi (1859-1917), during the period who served as director of the former Paraense Museum of Natural History and Ethnography, later named Museu Emilio Goeldi in his honor.

We also added to the exhibition a series of colored woodcuts created by Oswaldo Goeldi (1895-1961), with the theme of Brazilian flowers. Created by the artist in the 1950s, they remained for years guarded by the heirs of Editora Agir, where Oswaldo Goeldi served as an illustrator.

We seek here to unite, in an unprecedented proposal, the work of father and son, portraying our biodiversity in a unique way, highlighting the Brazilian fauna and flora and the theme of environmental preservation.

Through this exhibition, we take to the public a little of the life and history of Dr. Emílio Goeldi, a fearless Swiss naturalist who travels with his wife and his six children to the Amazon in order to pursue a dream: Researching Brazilian species and the region Amazon, one of the richest ornithological representations in the world.

We emphasize as the best example of the graphic care with which Dr. Emílio Goeldi conceived in his publications, the “Album of Amazon Birds” - or, in German “Die Vogelwelt am Amazonenstrom” -, organized as an appendix to the book “As Aves do Brasil” and published in three fascicles between the years 1900 and 1906. The album brings together 48 prints representing 337 species of birds in Brazil, contextualized in their respective habitats, illustrated by photographer, painter and lithographer Ernst Lohse (1873-1930), profoundly knowledgeable about the Amazonian environment , and printed at the Zurich Polygraphic Institute.

The repercussion of this work was great, especially due to the technical precision of the drawings and the beautiful landscapes portrayed, with Emílio Goeldi being hailed as a pioneer in the dissemination of ornithology.

By emphasizing the wealth of details and colors of our natural beauty, through these icons of science and art, we seek to raise awareness of future generations, with a technological appeal, to the importance of respecting and preserving the species of our planet.