History and memory on glass: the Brazilian photographs of the 1919 eclipse in Sobral

Abstract The objective of this article is to disseminate the astronomical photographs taken by the Brazilian expedition sent to Sobral (state of Ceará) to record the total eclipse of the Sun on May 29, 1919. There is a rich collection of photographs, most unpublished, available on glass plates stored in the Library of the Observatório Nacional. Photography was central to astronomy in the twentieth century. Thus, while the eclipse in Sobral had worldwide repercussions due to the proof of the theory of general relativity by the English expeditions, in this article we highlight the participation of astronomers from the Observatório Nacional at the same event, since they were the first Brazilians to successfully obtain photographs of the Sun’s corona.