Brazilian and Portuguese History and Culture: The Oliveira Lima Library

Gale is digitizing portions of the Oliveira Lima Library collection of historic Brazilian and Portuguese materials. The collection was originally developed as the personal library of Brazilian diplomat, historian, and journalist Manoel de Oliveira Lima (1867-1928). As first phase of the digitization effort Gale has selected the public domain pamphlets from the collection now housed at Catholic University of America.The online archive will include around 2,750 pamphlets, starting in 1800 and running into the 20th century (70% of the Oliveira Lima collection is from the long 19th century, covering 1800-1930). The digital files are being created directly from the original pamphlets.

The collection is wide ranging, covering various colonial areas while emphasizing Brazil and the Portuguese-speaking world. Most of the pamphlets relate specifically to Brazil. Significant coverage is given to history, politics and literature. Additional content covers social and economic conditions, agriculture and trade, travel and immigration, law and diplomacy, religion, women's rights, medicine, public health, foreign and international relations, geography, Pan-Americanism, positivism, the First World War, the Portuguese and Spanish empires, and more. A complete title list is attached in the review appendix.

More than 90% of the pamphlets are in Portuguese, with additional content in English, French, Spanish, German, Italian and Latin. The majority were published in Brazil or Portugal. Other countries of publication include the United States, England, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Argentina and Uruguay.