A fellow and his mushrooms: medical mycology at the Oswaldo Cruz Institute

In January 2023, the Brazilian newspaper O Globo published an article celebrating the centenary of the current Filamentous Fungi Culture Collection of the Oswaldo Cruz Institute/Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, which reached 100 years at the end of 2022. According to the newspaper, the collection originated from more than 800 specimens of organisms brought by Olympio da Fonseca, a physician and scientist sent to the United States to study mycology by Carlos Chagas, then director of the Institute. The article did not mention that Olympio da Fonseca’s stay was funded by a Rockefeller Foundation fellowship.

Olympio Ribeiro da Fonseca Filho (1895-1978), son of physician Olympio Arthur Ribeiro da Fonseca, graduated in medicine from the Faculty of Medicine of Rio de Janeiro in 1915 with the thesis Studies on parasitic flagellates of mammals in Brazil. During his medical studies, he joined the Applied Studies Course at the Oswaldo Cruz Institute, where he was a student of, among others, the aforementioned Carlos Chagas, discoverer of Chagas disease (1909)1. The Brazilian Institute was inspired by the Pasteur Institute in Paris. At the beginning of the 20th century, it played a similar role to that of European experimental medicine institutes, conducting research and training personnel2.

The first contacts between Fonseca and the Rockefeller Foundation occurred a bit later when the North American institution began its activities in Brazil. In 1916, the Rockefeller Foundation sent a medical commission to the country. The task of Richard Pearce, John Ferrell and Bailey K. Ashford was to make a survey of medical education, prevalent diseases, sanitary conditions and public health agencies in the country3. The commission’s activities were carried out in cooperation with the Oswaldo Cruz Institute, which Bailey Ashford’s report noted as the “national and universally accredited body of Brazilian scientists and physicians” and “one of the most original and one of the best in the world”. Following the survey by the Commission and the contacts it established in Brazil, the Foundation began its activities through its International Health Board (IHB). This included agreements to combat hookworm disease, malaria and yellow fever, participation in the organization of institutions such as the São Paulo Institute of Hygiene, the Anna Nery School of Nursing, and the distribution of fellowships. In 1916, Lewis Wendell Hackett was appointed Associate Regional Director of IHB for Brazil, a position he held until 19234. Soon after his doctorate and on the recommendation of Carlos Chagas, Olympio da Fonseca became Hackett’s medical assistant and worked as a field director for the Foundation in 1916 and 19175. In the late 1910s, the Oswaldo Cruz Institute was interested in systematizing mycology work, more specifically, medical mycology. According to Olympio da Fonseca, Chagas chose him for the task because of his knowledge of botany, and a course he had taken in general mycology6.

In 1919, Fonseca was appointed to a Rockefeller Foundation fellowship, a designation the physician himself believed was facilitated by his previous connection to the organization7. However, the fellowship was eventually rescinded due to his inability to take it up, as the government required him to join the efforts against yellow fever. He was reappointed a year later, what would demonstrate how much Hackett and Chagas valued the mycology project, and thought Fonseca was the right person to see it through to completion. According to Lewis Hackett, Fonseca represented “the best that Brazil had to offer, both in terms of scientific training and intellectual capacity” (figure 1).

Figure 1: Olympio da Fonseca’s fellowship recorder card

Source: Fellowship recorder card for Olympio da Fonseca . Rockefeller Foundation records, R.G.10.2.
© Courtesy of Rockefeller Archive Center.

He became one of the first Brazilian fellows of the IHB. In addition to him, 87 other professionals linked to institutions and/or government agencies in the country received 92 fellowships for the areas of public health, nursing, medicine and biological sciences between 1917 and 1948 (figure 2).

Figure 2: Brazilian fellowships awarded by the International Health Board and International Health Division of the Rockefeller Foundation between 1917 and 1948

Source: Based on Korndörfer, 2021.

Fonseca’s fellowship lasted from October 1, 1920 to August 11, 1922. He arrived in the United States a month earlier, in order to polish his english before courses started at the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, where he was to study for a year. He was expected to acquire advanced knowledge in mycology. As mentioned on the fellowship permanent recorder card established by the Rockefeller Foundation (figure 2), he had advanced training in medical natural history, medicine and parasitology, and years of experience at the Oswaldo Cruz Institute. After meeting with William Welch to discuss his study plan – Welch was a major figure both at Johns Hopkins University and within Rockefeller circles, Fonseca began his activities at Johns Hopkins working with William MacCallum, head of the Department of Pathology, and Stanhope Bayne-Jones, associate professor (figure 3).

Figure 3: Johns Hopkins University, Photograph of Pathology Staff, 1921-1922. Olympio da Fonseca (standing, the first from left to right), Bayne-Jones (seated, the second from left to right) and MacCallum (seated, the third from left to right).

Source: Arquivo de História da Ciência, Museu de Astronomia e Ciências Afins – MAST (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), OF.F.0095.0001.

During this first year, Fonseca also spent time with Duncan Johnson (Department of Botany, Johns Hopkins), Charles Thom (Bureau of Chemistry, U. S. Department of Agriculture), Erwin Smith (Bureau of Plant Industry, U. S. Department of Agriculture), Cornelius Shear (mycologist) and T. C. Gilchrist (Department of Dermatology, Johns Hopkins).

In a later autobiographical account, Fonseca stated that he had acquired important knowledge in the United States, “[…] a country where some of the most important discoveries in the field of medical mycology had been made”8. However, according to him, many of these discoveries had occurred in the 19th century. At the beginning of the 20th century, there seemed to be little interest “in investigating the aetiological agents of human mycoses”, he said. Thus, there was no one who could guide him in the Oswaldo Cruz Institute’s specific area of interest, medical mycology: “[…] the matter reached such a point that sometimes I was the one who taught them what I had learned here [in Brazil]”9. For the Brazilian physician, the shortcomings of North American science were partly explained by the limited contact with European science, since few people read materials that were not in English. In this context, Fonseca obtained a renewal for his fellowship in July 1921, in order to continue his studies in Europe. His fellowship recorder card includes a note from December 1920 indicating that Wickliffe Rose, then director of the International Health Board, believed that Fonseca’s time would be better spent studying in Paris. MacCallum acknowledged that da Fonseca’s expertise had no match at Hopkins, but suggested that the Brazilian physician should remain there until the end of the academic year, when he would be better prepared to go to Europe10. According to the Brazilian physician, MacCallum was not enticed by the whole prospect: “This caused some irritation among the Americans, especially MacCallum, who was upset by the whole thing. He didn’t understand why, after being there, I had to go to Europe to learn so many things”11.

The collection of cultures started by Fonseca in the United States, especially through his contacts with Charles Thom, traveled with him to Europe. It served as a “calling card”, and more. In France, Fonseca worked with Raymond Sabouraud (Saint Louis Hospital and Paris Municipal Laboratory),12 an international reference in medical mycology, and with Emile Brumpt and Maurice Langeron at the Parasitology Laboratory of the Faculty of Medicine. Also in France, according to Fonseca, his collection, which already included more than 800 cultures, served as a basis for reconstructing the mycothèque of the Pasteur Institute, lost in World War I. After finishing his activities in that country, Fonseca also visited the main European mycology study centers in England, Belgium, Holland, Germany and Italy13.

In 1922, the physician returned to Brazil and organized the Micology Laboratory at the Oswaldo Cruz Institute, according to the initial plan. The lab received Fonseca’s collection which was considered “one of most complete collections of fungi cultures in existence”14. It also included a mycology library, and carried out activities in collaboration with the Dermatological Clinic of the Faculty of Medicine of Rio de Janeiro. Fonseca directed the Mycology Lab for 15 years (1922-1937), held positions at the Medical Faculty in Rio de Janeiro, and served as director of the Oswaldo Cruz Institute itself from 1949 to 1955.

In addition to enabling research in medical mycology, such as that related to chromoblastomycosis (an infection of the skin), the initial collection organized by Olympio da Fonseca served as a basis for the organization of mycotheques in Brazil (Faculties of Medicine of São Paulo and Rio Grande do Sul) and abroad (Bacteriological Institute of the Department of Hygiene of Buenos Aires, Imperial University of Sendai in Japan). In 1936, Pablo Negroni, a mycologist at the Department of Hygiene of Buenos Aires, renamed the main etiological agent of chromoblastomycosis “Fonsecaea pedrosoi” in honor of Olympio da Fonseca15. The collection also provided cultures for a number of correspondants, for example Charles Thom at the Bureau of Chemistry of the U.S. Department of Agriculture16. Fonseca’s contributions to Thom’s research are mentioned on several occasions in The Penicillia (1930)17.

We therefore understand that our study dialogues with the perspectives of historians such as Marcos Cueto and Steven Palmer18, indicating that, at the beginning of the 20th century, Latin American medicine actively participated in the international circulation of people, ideas and biological products, a process essential for the validation/legitimization of modern Western medicine. This research, still under development, indicates that the fellowship granted by the IHB/RF to Olympio da Fonseca, who was linked to the internationally and nationally recognized Oswaldo Cruz Institute, was intended to meet a query from the Brazilian institution: to provide specialized training in medical mycology that would enable the organization of a mycology section. Having circulated through North American and European institutions and established contact with different researchers, Fonseca became part of an international scientific network, organizing an important collection of cultures that not only enabled countless research projects, but also contributed to the organization and expansion of other collections, in Brazil and abroad.

Further Reading

A. P. Korndörfer, “An International Problem of Serious Proportions”: Cooperation between the Rockefeller Foundation and the Government of the State of Rio Grande do Sul in the Fight against Hookworm Disease and its Consequences (1919-1929), PhD thesis in History, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul, 2013.

A. P. Korndörfer, “The International Health Division of the Rockefeller Foundation and the training of health professionals in Brazil: the case of Olympio da Fonseca (1920s)”, Asclepio, 73 :1, 2021, p. 345.

This discussion is part of a postdoctoral project carried out at Casa de Oswaldo Cruz/Fiocruz, under the supervision of Luiz Otávio Ferreira, and entitled “The fellowship program of the Rockefeller Foundation’s International Health Division and the training of professionals linked to the Oswaldo Cruz Institute (1917-1951)” (Senior Postdoctoral Fellow – National Council for Scientific and Technological Development/CNPq – Notice No. 32/2023 – Process 101726/2024-4).

  1. A. P. Korndörfer, “The International Health Division of the Rockefeller Foundation and the training of health professionals in Brazil: the case of Olympio da Fonseca (1920s)”, Asclepio, 73 :1, 2021, p. 345. ↩︎
  2. J. L. Benchimol (coord.), Manguinhos do sonho à vida – a ciência na Belle Époque, Rio de Janeiro, Editora Fiocruz, 2020. ↩︎
  3. Rockefeller Archive Center, Rockeller Foundation records, “Brazil, Medical Commission”, January 25, 1916, RG 1.1 – Projects, Series 305 – Brazil, Sub-Series A (Medical Sciences), Box 2, Folder 15. ↩︎
  4. A. P. Korndörfer, “An International Problem of Serious Proportions”: Cooperation between the Rockefeller Foundation and the Government of the State of Rio Grande do Sul in the Fight against Hookworm Disease and its Consequences (1919-1929), PhD thesis in History,  Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul, 2013. ↩︎
  5. Rockefeller Archive Center, Rockeller Foundation records, Hackett to Rose, november 20, 1916, RG 1.1, Series 305H, Sub-Series H, Box 15, Folder 133. ↩︎
  6. O. O. R. da Fonseca Filho, Olympio da Fonseca (testimony, 1977), Rio de Janeiro, Fundação Getúlio Vargas (FGV), Centro de Pesquisa e Documentação de História Contemporânea do Brasil (CPDOC), 2010. ↩︎
  7. da Fonseca Filho, Olympio, p. 20. ↩︎
  8. O. Fonseca Filho, A Escola de Manguinhos – Contribuição para o estudo do desenvolvimento da medicina experimental no Brasil. Separata do Tomo II de “Oswaldo Cruz Monumenta Historica”, São Paulo, 1974, p. 80. ↩︎
  9. O. O. R. da Fonseca Filho, Olympio da Fonseca (testimony, 1977), Rio de Janeiro, FGV, CPDOC, 2010, p. 24. ↩︎
  10. Rockefeller Archive Center, Rockeller Foundation records, RG 10.2 Fellowship Recorder Cards, Series MNS Brazil, Fonseca, Olympio da. ↩︎
  11. da Fonseca Filho, Olympio, p. 25. ↩︎
  12. The featured image at the top of this post is a Petri dish culture plate containing a growth medium of Sabouraud dextrose agar, which had been inoculated with the fungal organism from the genus, Syncephalastrum, strain A-4Source: Public Health Image Library, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. ↩︎
  13. Fonseca Filho, A Escola de Manguinhos. ↩︎
  14. Rockefeller Archive Center, Rockeller Foundation records, RG 10.2 Fellowship Recorder Cards, Series MNS Brazil, Fonseca, Olympio da. ↩︎
  15. D. Moraes, A. M. Bailão & M. G. Silva-Bailão, “Etymologia: Fonsecaea pedrosoi”, Emerging Infectious Diseases, 29:7, 2023. ↩︎
  16. Fonseca Filho, A Escola de Manguinhos, 1974. ↩︎
  17. C. Thom, The Penicillia, London, Baillière, Tindall and Cox, 1930. ↩︎
  18. M. Cueto & S. Palmer, Medicine and public health in Latin America: a history, New York, Cambridge University Press, 2015. ↩︎

Ana Paula Korndörfer

Ana Paula Korndörfer is a professor and researcher on the History Course at the University of Vale do Rio dos Sinos (Unisinos - Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil). She is one of the coordinators of the Laboratório de História Comparada do Cone Sul (IFRS-CNPq).

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OpenEdition suggests that you cite this post as follows:
Ana Paula Korndörfer (February 15, 2025). A fellow and his mushrooms: medical mycology at the Oswaldo Cruz Institute. Rockefeller fellows. Retrieved April 27, 2025 from https://doi.org/10.58079/13boe


About Ana Paula Korndörfer

Ana Paula Korndörfer is a professor and researcher on the History Course at the University of Vale do Rio dos Sinos (Unisinos - Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil). She is one of the coordinators of the Laboratório de História Comparada do Cone Sul (IFRS-CNPq).