Image description: This is a historic black-and-white photograph showing an urban scene with tram tracks. On the left, there is a large building with a visible chimney. In the center, two two-story buildings stand close to one another. On the right, there is a more extensive structure, possibly a factory or warehouse. In the middle of the image, the tram tracks curve in a U-shape, with a few people walking along them. On the right, there is a small booth with a triangular roof and a signpost. At the bottom of the image, part of a tree is visible. In the lower right corner, there is an inscription that reads "RUA LACOA CASH HOUSE LOCATION."- CURADORIA
- Joaquim Marçal
At the beginning of the 20th century, Rio de Janeiro entered a period of great transformations. The capital of the Republic proclaimed a decade prior was still an unsanitary place with colonial traits – distant, from an urbanistic point of view, from other centers in America and Europe. But plans had been being gestated locally since the Second Reign, the political moment was favorable and thus, the city attracted foreign entrepreneurs interested in making urban reform, infrastructure, and services projects viable.
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Light, as we know it today, is perhaps the longest-standing company of this centennial history initiated with the foundation of the The Rio de Janeiro Light and Power Co. Ltd. in 1904, with headquarters in Toronto, Canada. Its local activities involved the production and distribution of electric power, public lighting, urban transport by streetcars and buses, the manufacturing and distribution of gas, and telephone services.
The use of photography as a technical resource to document business activities was followed to the letter, from the beginning. The step-by-step of each work, the routine of the countless activities in their facilities, the scientific and forensic images, everything was recorded. Today, this immense collection is dispersed as a consequence of the fragmentation of that conglomerate that came to be named the “Canadian octopus,” given the many activities it absorbed.
But the Centro Cultural da Light, installed in the company's headquarters building on avenida Marechal Floriano, still holds a fabulous collection of photographs that is a precious source for us to dive into the past of our city. In this gallery, we are going to reminisce about those times of simultaneous technological revolutions that brought us here.
Image description: This is a historic black-and-white photograph showing an urban scene with tram tracks. On the left, there is a large building with a visible chimney. In the center, two two-story buildings stand close to one another. On the right, there is a more extensive structure, possibly a factory or warehouse. In the middle of the image, the tram tracks curve in a U-shape, with a few people walking along them. On the right, there is a small booth with a triangular roof and a signpost. At the bottom of the image, part of a tree is visible. In the lower right corner, there is an inscription that reads "RUA LACOA CASH HOUSE LOCATION."
