Anthropology Museum of the Paraíba Valley, Anthropology museum in Jacareí, Brazil.

The Anthropology Museum of the Paraíba Valley occupies the Solar Gomes Leitão, a neoclassical townhouse built in rammed earth by enslaved labour and inaugurated in 1857 at Rua Quinze de Novembro 143, in central Jacareí. Its collection holds sacred and baroque art, old paintings and furniture, and clay Paulistinhas figures made by local santeiros in the 18th and 19th centuries.

The Solar Gomes Leitão was inaugurated in 1857 by merchant João da Costa Gomes Leitão, built in taipa with neoclassical lines by enslaved labour. After his death in 1879 it passed to one of his four daughters, was sold to the state and housed the Cel Carlos Porto school group from 1895 to 1980. After listing, a 12-year restoration (1980–1992) prepared it for the museum.

The collection centres on the Paulistinhas, clay devotional figures made by santeiros of the Paraíba Valley in the 18th and 19th centuries for poor households that could not afford images imported from Portugal. Collector Eduardo Etzel, who spent 50 years researching Brazilian sacred images and wrote several books on them, brought the set into the museum. Sacred and baroque pieces, old paintings and furniture fill out the displays.

The museum occupies the Solar Gomes Leitão at Rua Quinze de Novembro 143, in the centre of Jacareí. The building is a listed historic structure, so visitors should expect a preserved 19th-century townhouse rather than a modern gallery. Allow time to see both the house and the collection.

The building was erected in 1857 for merchant João da Costa Gomes Leitão, who built his fortune on the slave trade, coffee and money lending; in 1860 he was considered the region's largest slave trader, which barred him from imperial titles of nobility. From 1895 to 1980 it housed the Cel Carlos Porto school group, and in 2017 an exhibition marked the building's 160th anniversary with its three phases: manor, school and museum.