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Crossing boundaries into a world of scientific discoveries: Maria Graham in nineteenth-century Brazil

In this article I analyse the British traveller Maria Graham (1785–1842) and her lesser-known travels to Brazil in the early nineteenth century. I argue that Graham attempted to cross boundaries into the masculine world of natural history with the help of a social network composed of several important figures in Brazilian society, including the Empress Maria Leopoldina, who shared her interest in the natural sciences. Graham constructed that network by taking advantage of the fact that in South America her British citizenship allowed her to overcome many of the limitations imposed on her in Europe because of her gender. Graham then created a feminised form of scientific discourse that allowed her to pursue her scientific endeavours without fearing retaliation from the then exclusively male scientific community. This hybrid narrative reveals that Graham's relationships in the Brazilian contact zone took on different levels of complexity as she tried to gain acceptance from the scientists around her.