This study presents a preliminary systematisation of
the stereographs that are part of the public collections
of Rio de Janeiro. We start with an investigation of the
presence of optical devices in nineteenth century Brazil,
especially in the city of Rio de Janeiro, examining both
users and diffusers, as well as the forms of observation
and social contexts of their use. Our original research
was based on the studies of the first cinema, especially
the work of Tom Gunning and Charles Musser, and on
art history by Jonathan Crary, authors who helped us
analyse, respectively, the re-contextualization process
regarding the use of optical devices and the resizing
of the observer of modernity. Our empirical work was
based on the systematic study of advertisements
published in the newspapers of the period in question,
especially in the Jornal do Commercio, between
the 1850s and the 1870s. We conducted a survey of
the establishments that imported and marketed these
devices during the period, using advertisements published in Almanak Laemmert, between the years 1844 and 1889. We place a special emphasis on the arrival of
photography in Brazil and to the precocity with which
stereoscopy was developed here by the photographer
Revert Henrique Klumb. We mapped themes as a reference for Brazilian visuality, and made an inventory of the Brazilian photographers who developed this technique in their works. From the information gathered, we answered research questions about the presence of optical devices in the city of Rio de Janeiro in the nineteenth century, especially stereoscopy considering its particularities in the historical, economic and social context of the time.
