The Latin American Microfilm Project (LAMP) at the Center for Research Libraries (CRL) has been funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to digitize executive branch serial documents issued by Brazil's national government during the period between 1821 and 1993, and by its provincial governments from the earliest available for each province to the end of the Empire to 1889. The project provides Internet access to these documents to facilitate their scholarly use and thereby enhances Latin Americanist scholarship within the Hemisphere-wide initiative sponsored by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
The Brazilian documents were scanned from microfilm copies of the originals. The images are stored as GIF and TIFF images in the Center for Research Libraries' Electronic Document Storage and Distribution Facility. The GIF images, at a resolution of 100 dots per inch (d.p.i.), are viewable using web browsers such as Mosaic and Netscape. The TIFF 300 d.p.i. images offer greater clarity, but require a TIFF viewer for use. When GIF images are not legible, click on the "300-d.p.i. TIFF image" found at the top and bottom of the screen. The TIFF image will load automatically in the TIFF viewer you have installed. If the image is illegible in the TIFF format, the reader's only recourse is paper copies. IMPORTANT: Make sure that your video driver is at least at a resolution of 600x800 to allow for the appropriate formatting of the text images.
IMAGE QUALITY AND SELECTION -- The images in this database are uneven in quality. Most images are legible, but some are not. Further, the quality of images can vary considerably from one page to the next. Poor image quality is due to the poor condition of the paper copy when it was filmed. The damaged paper copy resulted in degenerated microfilm images, which then migrated to the electronic medium. In a few isolated cases, like the entire Piaui Provincial Presidential Reports, the film images were not scannable. Documents not available on film have been considered unavailable and have been omitted from these files. Blank pages included in the original page sequences, which were also copied during microfilming, have not been scanned. The corresponding page numbers for these pages have been dropped from the index.
The documents consist of the following:
Provincial Presidential Reports (1830-1889). These state-level messages, issued annually during the Imperial period, summarize activities within each province. Access is by province and year, while subject access to selected quantitative information is provided through links from the Subject Guide to Statistics in the Presidential Reports of the Brazilian Provinces, 1830-1889 compiled by Ann Hartness. Please take a minute to look at the Readme file to familiarize yourself with the database before accessing the Hartness Guide. |
Presidential Messages (1889-1993). Brazil became a republic in 1889. The President's annual message has since summarized executive branch activities. These documents are accessible by year and, where available, by the message's table of contents. Please take a minute to look at the Readme file to familiarize yourself with the database before accessing the Presidential Messages. |
Ministerial Reports (1821-1960). Each federal ministry issues an annual report that recounts its activities. Access is by ministry, year, and, where available, table of contents. |
Almanak Administrativo, Mercantil e Industrial do Rio de Janeiro (1844-1889). The Almanak was published annually by the Brazilian Royal Court between 1844 and 1889. It listed officials of the Court and its Ministries. Also included were sections on provincial officials for Rio de Janeiro and a supplement including a variety of information such as legislation, census data and commerical advertising. This set will be added to this database in 1998. Almanak betatest |
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since 8/15/97
Click here to email comments and suggestions. Scott Van Jacob, University of Notre Dame