Arts & Culture
Sampaio’s geography
A research project on Theodoro Sampaio, the son of a slave who became one of Brazil’s leading engineers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, is the winner of the 2008 Clarival do Prado Valladares Award
written by: Karolina Gutiez
photos by: Luciano Andrade
An architect born in the southern Brazilian state of Paraná, Ademir first came across Theodoro the engineer when he was studying for his master’s in History at the Paulista State University at Assis, São Paulo, in 1992. While investigating the origins of urban development in the Paranapanema Valley, in São Paulo State, Ademir learned about the Geographic and Geological Commission of São Paulo, an institution created in 1886 that was responsible for the first expedition that studied the topography and geography of that area, which was then uninhabited. The surveys were carried out that same year, under the direction of Theodoro Sampaio. The data on Paranapanema obtained through those expeditions are the oldest on record.
Opportunities and dedication
Theodoro Sampaio was taken from his mother at the age of two and sent to live in the city of Santo Amaro da Purificação, Bahia. When he was 10, in 1865, he went to São Paulo and later on to Rio de Janeiro, where he studied at the elite São Salvador boarding school. His father paid for his education, which leads to the first unanswered question about Sampaio. We do not know whether the priest believed to have sired him was really his biological father, or if he registered the boy on behalf of Antônio da Costa Pinto, the Count of Aramaré, the sugar planter who was Sampaio’s benefactor and protector when he went to primary and secondary school at the Rio de Janeiro Polytechnic, from which he graduated in 1877.
Young Theodoro Sampaio’s professional career began at the National Museum, where he was a teacher and research assistant. At that institution, the engineer met a man who would become his mentor and close friend: Orville Derby, an American naturalized as a Brazilian citizen who is considered the father of Geology in Brazil. Derby belonged to the Brazilian Empire’s Geological and Geographic Com-mission and invited Sampaio to become his assistant. His job was to organize the results of the expeditions carried out throughout Brazil.
Dedicated and intelligent, Theodoro Sampaio was appointed to the Empire’s Water Commission in 1879, at the age of 24. Formed to study Brazilian ports and navigable waterways, it was headed by William Milnor Roberts, an American who based his research on the steamboat transportation used primarily on the Mississippi River. When the Americans left Brazil, Sampaio was chosen to lead the team that would carry out the works planned for the São Francisco River basin and the surrounding region, including the Bahia and São Francisco Railway, which would connect it to the coast. He traveled, studied and mapped that area for seven years.
A friend of Euclides da Cunha, who also had an engineering degree and became a war correspondent for the O Estado de São Paulo newspaper, Theodoro Sampaio provided the author with a detailed geological and cartographic description of the São Francisco River basin. The data Sampaio supplied contributed to the writing of Da Cunha’s Os Sertões (Rebellion in the Backlands) on the Canudos War, which is now considered a masterwork of Brazilian literature.
Scientific contribution
When Orville Derby was invited to organize and direct the São Paulo Geographic and Geological Commission in 1886, he didn’t think twice about inviting his friend and former assistant to become his right-hand man. The expeditions they organized had a holistic, multidisciplinary view of regional studies, involving botanists, engineers, zoologists, surveyors, cartographers and photographers.
“The geographic data they produced laid the foundations for administrative measures such as supervising public land and fighting pests in the São Paulo coffee plantations, as well as investments in infrastructure and the economic development of the state,” says Ademir, adding: “A map is an economic and military tool as well as providing knowledge about the physical terrain without which it is impossible for a region to prosper.” The data gathered by the São Paulo Geographic and Geological Commission was published in other countries, such as Italy, to attract foreign immigrants.
During his years in São Paulo, from 1886 to 1904, Sampaio mapped the state’s territory and organized water and sewer services, initially working for São Paulo City and later for the state government. He also worked on the expansion of the Port of Santos, which was too small to handle the nation’s massive coffee exports.
“Theodoro Sampaio was responsible for the earliest scientific production from a Brazilian viewpoint. Previously, everything that had been done in that field in our country had resulted from the work of foreign scientists – Americans and Europeans who were attracted by Brazil’s abundant animal and plant life. Sampaio made that transition, and that was his main contribution to Brazilian science,” the scholar observes. It was no small contribution, particularly considering that he was a black man at a time when racial prejudice was particularly intense. And he did so without turning his back on his roots. When he was still in Rio de Janeiro, he purchased the manumission of his mother and three siblings as soon as he could.
In addition to being a scientist and civil engineer, Theodoro Sampaio also played additional roles as an architect, urban planner, anthropologist, historian, cartographer, geographer and artist – producing skilful drawings and landscapes. “I could even say that he was the first anthropologist in our history, because his expeditions analyzed the customs of the Amerindians and caboclos (people of mixed European and Amerindian descent). He didn’t limit himself to the potential of Brazil’s natural resources. He also took its cultural wealth and unique traits into consideration,” observes Ademir.
Going home
Sampaio returned to Bahia in 1905 and lived there for 30 years. He started his own business in the city of Salvador and signed a contract with the city government to build water and sewer systems in what is now the state capital. In addition to planning the project, he took part in its execution. However, the city government did not have enough money to build the works, which was a tremendous disappointment for the engineer.
Winning project was chosen from 338 submissions
In 1919, Sampaio planned Cidade da Luz (the City of Light), a big and bold urban development project that is now Salvador’s Pituba district. Twice elected to the Brazilian Congress, in 1927 and 1929, he was also the orator, editor and president of the Geographic and Historic Institute of Bahia from 1922 to 1936.
Theodoro Sampaio died in 1937 in Rio de Janeiro, but like many chapters of his life, the cause of his death is a mystery. At least, for now.