[2] Rodrigues was born on June 22, 1842, in São Gonçalo do Sapucaí,[1] Brazil, and was initially raised in Campanha, in the state of Minas Gerais, before the family returned to Rio de Janeiro in 1858.

[1] Rodrigues initially became a teacher of drawing at the Colégio Pedro II who specialized in botany, under the supervision of Francisco Freire Allemão e Cysneiro.

He began his botanical expeditions in 1868 and was commissioned by the Brazilian government in 1871 to explore the Amazon basin and study palms, in part due to sponsorship by Guilherme Schüch, the Baron of Capanema.

[1] Cogniaux gave the British botanical artist Harriet Anne Hooker Thiselton-Dyer access to the Rodrigues drawings in his possession, and she copied some 550 of them for the Kew Gardens collection before they were returned to Brazil.

Not long afterwards, he was tasked to organize and direct a brand-new Botanic Museum of the Amazon in Manaus, which opened in 1883 under the sponsorship of Princess Isabel.

He founded a journal, Vellosia (named in honor of José Mariano de Conceição Vellozo), to showcase the museum's work; it was discontinued after only four volumes were issued.

[1] Despite its royal patronage, the museum struggled financially and closed in 1890 when Rodrigues moved on to become director of the Botanic Garden of Rio de Janeiro, a position he would hold until his death.

[1] On the centenary of his birth, the João Barbosa Rodrigues Botany Museum was named in his honor; it sits inside the Rio de Janeiro botanic garden.