During the XVIIIth and XIXth centuries, travelers that studied natural history were referred to as travel naturalists. Nature included the stars and planets, the atmosphere, flora and fauna, and surface and underground minerals. While in colonial times they were limited to citizens of Portugal who were instructed to discover natural resources and their uses, those who traveled through Brazil after 1808 came from different regions of Europe and were concerned with observing and classifying people and natural specimens found along the way. Sponsored by either noblemen or scientific societies, they traveled around Brazil in a combined endeavor of discovering, collecting, and classifying natural specimens on the American continent.
naturalists; travelers; history of science in Brazil