Orville Adelbert Derby : Notes for the Study of His Intellectual-Scientific Performance in the State Of São Paulo (1886-1905)

Abstract

From 1886 to 1905, North-American geologist Orville Adelbert Derby led the Geographical and Geological Commission in the Province of São Paulo, created by the government of the state as a way of assisting, through the scientific knowledge of the territory, the agricultural expansion which at that moment had been following the growing pace of coffee based economy. At the same time, Derby also got involved directly, in the year of 1894, in the process of creating the Historical and Geographical Institute of São Paulo, which gathered, in the end of 19thcentury, groups linked to the intellectual elites in the state which were interested in writing a regional story that was successful in highlighting the important participation of São Paulo in the national scenario. This article analyzes Orville Adelbert Derby’s double performance, who occupied important spaces in social, scientific and intellectual lives in the state of São Paulo, both as a geologist and as a regional history researcher.