The present research begins as a case study to re-think wider subjects concerning Design History and Brazilian History. For the last twenty-five years of nineteenth century (from the Second Reign to the Republic) the one who wanted to register and reassure the exclusivity of his commercial mark should deposit one sample in any Commercial Board established on national territory. In the Court, the gathering of the lithographic labelssample assembled also a vast sort of texts, images, purposes, origins and commitments. When this process finished with the Republic, the registry- books were filed and lately absorbed by the National Archive as components of the nineteenth century material culture. Although it being a rich source for multiple historical studies, especially those regarded with images and visual communication, the collection of labels was for more than a hundred years forgotten and kept inactive as a social agent. One thematic focus was laid over the almost thousand found labels. Were separate for graphic analysis those who carried the image of the Brazilian native (19 in total). They were analyzed concerning the debate around national identity and modernity taken throughout the nineteenth century. Through the efforts of this research we tried not only to recuperate part of our material culture but also to point out new forms of understanding and reporting to our own history nowadays.