Gramophones and Gadgets for Brazilian Homes: consumption, culture and technicism in the magazine O Echo (1902-1918)

Abstract

This article focuses on the strategies and discourses of the magazine O Echo to create a specific market in Brazil concerning imported gadgets and sound reproduction machines at the beginning of the twentieth century. Including entertainment, cultural contents and catalog of products, the magazine encouraged new habits related to industrialized objects. The technical artifacts shown in the pages of the magazine promised to take home some “public activities” and helped to forge images of the private space for brazilian families.