This article aims to study the constitution of public childcare and the teaching of pediatrics in Rio de Janeiro. We are based on the hypothesis that the teaching of pediatrics occurred alongside The University of Medicine of Rio de Janeiro. Physicians involved in this process created independent centers for their clinics as well as for the teaching of the so-called children's maladies. We have accompanied the story of two doctors involved in this process, Antônio Fernandes Figueira and Luiz Barbosa. What they have in common is their fight for the teaching of pediatrics, and their leadership in philanthropic institutions related to childcare for the poor. We consider philanthropy as a key characteristic of High-class society during the First Republic, because it was vital for political and academic issues involved in the institutionalization process of pediatrics and public childcare.
philanthropy; Medicine; childcare
