FIOCRUZ BIOLOGICAL COLLECTIONS
BETWEEN SCIENCE, HERITAGE, AND MUSEUM
Keywords:
museology, cultural heritage of science, biological collections, collection management, musealisationAbstract
This paper examines the relationship between the institutionalized biological collections of the Fundação Oswaldo Cruz and museological processes, considering challenges related to the preservation, management, and communication of these collections. It is based on the understanding that these collections, developed throughout the institution’s history since 1900, were constituted within the context of its scientific practices and gradually acquired meanings associated with museology and heritage. The theoretical framework draws on discussions of collections, musealisation, and the relationships between science, heritage, and museums. The research adopted a qualitative and exploratory approach, combining documentary and bibliographic research, analysis of institutional webpages, the use of testimonies from a previous oral history project, and the application of a structured questionnaire to those responsible for the collections. A total of 36 collections distributed across different institutes and scientific categories were identified, of which 35 contributed to the study. The results highlight challenges related to the institutional dispersion of the collections, the heterogeneity of management structures, infrastructure limitations, and the fragility of existing cooperative mechanisms supporting museological initiatives. At the same time, experiences involving the participation of collections in exhibitions, educational activities, and science communication initiatives have expanded in recent years. The findings suggest that the effective museological integration of biological collections depends less on their intrinsic characteristics than on the institution’s capacity to overcome organisational fragmentation and establish lasting links between research, preservation and communication sectors.