Brasiliana Collection

Brazil has long been a subject of interest at Brown University Library. In 1912, the Library acquired the private collection of Col. George Earl Church (1835–1910), a noted engineer, explorer, soldier and investor from New Bedford, Massachusetts, also known as one of the lead engineers behind the Madeira-Mamoré Railroad project, a plan to provide the government of Bolivia, a landlocked country and major producer of rubber, a means of communication to the Atlantic through the Amazon River and its tributaries.

Thanks to the bequest of Col. Church, the Library’s holdings on Brazil not only increased considerably in number but could offer scholars the necessary core volumes on the history and exploration of the region from the colonial period through the dawn of the 20th Century.

Since then the Library has continued to build its Brazilian collection thanks to significant and subject-specific donations as well as systematic acquisitions plans that support the research needs of Brown and world scholars alike with newly published materials.

The mission of the Brasiliana Collection is two-fold:

• To support the curriculum of the Department of Portuguese and Brazilian Studies, as well as faculty and students associated to the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS), the Department of History, the Department of Africana Studies, the Program in Public Health, the Center for Environmental Studies, and other academic units in the humanities and social sciences that foster research on Brazil.
• To support the research of a community of scholars who travel to Brown to consult a world-class collection of materials on Brazil.

With the branding and development of the Brasiliana Collection, Brown University Library is committed to become the premier academic collection for Brazilian Studies outside of Brazil. This commitment is based on the University’s excellent Portuguese language and Lusophone literature programs (including an undergraduate concentration and graduate programs leading to master’s and Ph.D. degrees); strength in the social sciences; pre-existing unique library collections; and faculty members and visiting scholars who are internationally recognized leaders in their disciplines.

The Brasiliana Collection focuses on Brazilian literature, history, education, anthropology, cross-cultural studies, race relations, ethnic studies, cultural studies, environmental studies, music, public policy, sociology and Portuguese second-language acquisition.