Description of the Brazilian Building from the Book of the Fair Guidebook:
The Brazilian building is the most ornate of the South American pavilions, one in which the artificer has given full rein to his fancy; for by the Exposition management there were no restrictions as to the designs of state or foreign structures; only that they must be attractive and in harmony with the general plan. In style it is of the French renaissance, nearly 150 feet square, and surmounted by a dome 120 feet in height from floor to finial, around which are campaniles, each with an open observatory. On each face are columns of the Corinthian order, and on the facades and the stylobate of the dome are Indian and other figures symbolical of the republic. The ground floor is almost without partitions and devoted mainly to the exhibit of coffee. On the upper floor the assembly room is handsomely draped and furnished; in its centre a group of palms and ferns, above which is a figure of Mercury. There are also ladies’ reception parlors, and in rear of the building is an annex where by native waiters is served such coffee as nowhere else can be had; for as the Brazilians claim, the art of roasting the berry and preparing the beverage is unknown in the United States.
In the central hall are more than 2,000 specimens of the 370,000 tons of coffee yearly produced in Brazil, or about two thirds of the world’s supply, one half of it coming from the state of St. Paulo. The samples are ranged in glass jars grouped on tables or in pyramidal form, and represent the greatest of Brazilian industries; for nearly all the coffee sold as of the Mocha or Java varieties comes from the southern republic, whose choicer products are not inferior to either. In addition to the Brazilian collection in the palace of Fine Arts there is one of equal merit in the government building, including Pedro Americo’s famous painting of the "Proclamation of Brazilian Independence" by the emperor in 1822. "Tiradentes," by Aurelio de Figuerdo, represents the execution of this proto-martyr of Brazil. Antonio Parreiras has three canvases, one of which is a "Panorama of the City of Nictheroy." Insley Pacheco has a number of landscape views, most of them from the neighborhood of Rio Janeiro, whose harbor is the most picturesque in the world. Among portraits is one of General Deodoro by Henrique Bernardelli, and by Girardet is a medallion of Benjamin Constant, leader of the revolution by which Dom Pedro was deposed.