Carmen Miranda Museum, Biographical museum in Flamengo Park, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
The Carmen Miranda Museum is an exhibition space inside Flamengo Park in Rio de Janeiro, displaying stage costumes, jewelry, accessories, photographs, and personal items from the performer's career. The circular building also holds audio recordings, film documentaries, and stage props.
The museum was created by governmental decree in 1956 but did not open until 1976, on the anniversary of Carmen Miranda's death. She had reached the height of her career in the 1940s, becoming one of the most recognized Brazilian figures abroad.
The museum shows how Carmen Miranda carried Brazilian music and samba rhythms to audiences in the United States and Europe. Looking at the costumes up close helps visitors understand why she remains a figure that many Brazilians feel proud of to this day.
The museum occupies a circular concrete pavilion of 22 metres diameter with an inner courtyard, reached through two tilting doors that open to form canopies over the entrances. It stands in Flamengo Park, on the site of the former Morro da Viúva playground. It closed in 2013 and reopened on 4 August 2023 after renovation work.
The collection began with donations from Carmen Miranda's family, through her sister Aurora Miranda and widower David Sebastian, after her death in August 1955. It now numbers 3,560 items, though most are not in the permanent exhibition. Among the pieces kept are the skirt from her Broadway debut and the turban she wore at her wedding.
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