An analysis is made of the meanings that emanate from a set of photographs collected by Luiz Palmier (1893-1955) relating to São Gonçalo Hospital, named after the municipality in Greater Rio de Janeiro. The images comprise a narrative that points to the progress experienced at the hospital, especially in healthcare, which was a paradigm for the modern period in the 1930s and 1940s. Luiz Palmier, who was the doctor and founder of the hospital, was a public figure that played a key role in the local history and its impacts on a regional and national scale.
São Gonçalo Hospital; photography; memory; public health; modernity; Vargas era
