For my dissertation, I wrote an environmental history of the Guanabara Bay, in Rio de Janeiro, from 1870-1970. Sounds huge, and it is. But it is an old love. One of the side benefits of choosing this theme is that I did my field research from Ipanema, at my parents’ home. Not bad at all.

When I started this page, I was in the early stages of the research, and I couldn’t show much here. Now I am done...and I don’t have TIME to put most of my conclusions here. But I owe many thanks to many people, so please find my “acknowledgment page” right here...

But here you have the technical description (of the dissertation, not of Guanabara):

Title: The ‘Bay of All Beauties:’ State and Environment in Guanabara Bay, Rio de Janeiro, 1875-1975

(The title is from a Melville’s book, White Jacket, from which chapter five is only about Guanabara Bay:

THE BAY OF ALL BEAUTIES

Talk not of Bahia de Todos os Santos--the Bay of All Saints; for though that be a glorious haven, yet Rio is the Bay of all Rivers—the Bay of all Delights—the Bay of all Beauties. From circumjacent hill-sides, untiring summer hangs perpetually in terraces of vivid verdure; and, embossed with old mosses, convent and castle nestle in valley and glen.”

Herman Melville, White Jacket)

Advisor:
Zephyr L. Frank, Associate Professor of Latin American History
John D. Wirth (in memorian), Gildred Professor in Latin American Studies

Dissertation Committee:
Zephyr Frank (Chair)
Richard White, Margaret Byrne Professor of American History, Stanford University
Thomas Holloway, Director of the Hemispheric Institute on the Americas, UC Davis

Abstract: This dissertation is a history of Guanabara Bay, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and of the institutions that managed its environment between 1875 and 1975.  It illustrates the birth of environmental agencies in Brazil, and how administrative, scientific and military institutions resisted to or integrated environmental concepts into their traditional activities. It explores the interplay of the urban environment and the natural environment in Guanabara Bay against a continuously shifting political and legal background. Regime change, international pressure, personal networks and demographic growth add to the complexity of this century-long investigation of one of the most celebrated landscapes of Latin America. The dissertation contributes to the development of environmental history in Latin America by combining this innovative approach with more traditional concepts of urban history and history of technology. 

But the old links are still cool:

Instituto Baía de Guanabara - Dora Negreiros knows all there is to know about the Bay.

Alternative Treaties: 34 - Guanabara Bay: Humankind's Heritage

Basic Sanitation Program for the Guanabara Bay Basin

Bay Institute Home

Do espaço colonial ao espaço da modernidade: os esportes na vida urbana do Rio de Janeiro

Harbor of Rio de Janeiro

Introduction to Brazilian Docs. – Fabulous resource for Imperial period and First Republic

Private Sector Participation in Water Supply and Sanitation in Latin America

UOL - O Rio de Janeiro através dos jornais

For a closer view of the Bay, don’t miss the  three hour boat trip around the Bay, by Saveiro Tours. Everyday from the Marina da Glória, at 9:30 h. But if you have guts, ask Flavio Pinheiro, from Limite Vertical, to take you for a climbing  of the SugarLoaf. It is worth it...