The 1862 London Exhibition “was a symbol of mid-Victorian aspira
tion” with a clear image of Britain’s ambition and its empire. These exhibitions were opportunities for other empires, such as the Portuguese, to assert and highlight the potential of their colonies. The case of the Portuguese representation during the nineteenth century in world exhibitions has been examined; however, the display of colonial products remains somehow less explored, namely, those related to the African flora. This research examines the representation of Portugal and its colonies at the 1862 London Exhibition, in particular, the case of colonial objects of natural history collected from what is known today as Angola. After the loss of Brazil, Africa was seen in a mythical way as the Eldorado, ready to fulfill the destiny of the nation by which it could eventually recover the status of a great power. Several aspects of the exhibition were analyzed, in particular, the objects and actors involved in the preparation of the Portuguese section. Regarding the latter, two main figures were crucial for the organization of this representation: Friedrich Welwitsch (1806–1872), who performed the Iter Angolense expedition (1853–1860), and orga
nized, contributed, and suggested objects that should be collected from Angola and Júlio Máximo de Oliveira Pimentel (the second viscount of Vila Maior, 1809–1884), the royal commissioner at the London Exhibition. To understand which objects were on display, Welwitsch’s publications, The Preliminary Notes on various objects from Angola (1861) and Explanatory Synopsis of Samples of Timber and Medicinal Drugs (1862), were crucial to this research. Although the Portuguese representation was severely criticized by the press, Welwitsch was awarded four gold medals for the colonial objects presented.We thank the staff members of the Archives of the University of Coimbra, particularly Ana Margarida Dias da Silva. This work was supported by the Portuguese Foundation FCT (Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia) (10.54499/DL57/2016/CP1372/CT0018) under the projects KNOW. AFRICA | KNOWledge networks in nineteenth-century AFRICA: A Digital Humanities approach to colonial encounters and local knowledge in the narratives of Portuguese expeditions (1853-1888) | ref. FCT - 2022.01599. PTDC (10.54499/2022.01599.PTDC) and PHONLAB—Phonetics Laboratory: Coimbra - Harvard. Rethinking twentieth-century scientific centres and peripheries | ref. FCT - 2022.06811. PTDC (10.54499/2022.06811.PTDC). It was also financed through national funding from the FCT under projects UIDB/04209/2020, UIDP/04209/2020, and LA/P/0132/2020 (10.54499/LA/P/0132/2020)
