Journey to the Maclay Coast

The publication was prepared with funding from the “Lenmontazhstroi” investment company (www.lmsic.com, 4 Italyanskaya ulitsa, St Petersburg, Russia 191186) and the Miklouho-Maclay Foundation for the Preservation of Ethnocultural Heritage based on the results of the first comprehensive scientific and research expedition to the Maclay Coast in the 21st century (2017). The book “Journey to the Maclay Coast” (2018) tells about the history that has tied Russia and New Guinea for ages. Illustrated popular science publication tells about the exploration of a unique place of the planet by Russian and Soviet scientists in XIX, XX and XXI centuries. The pages presents rare copies of drawings and excerpts from the Miklouho-Maclay diaries of XIX century. “The Maclay Coast is a unique place on the planet, where one can trace the development of human civilization from the “stone age” to the present on the example of the local residents” – said D. D. Tumarkin, Doctor of Historical Sciences, a prominent Russian ethnologist, oceanographer and a specialist in Maclay Heritage, the head of ethnographic team of the expeditions in 1971 and 1977 on the research vessel “Dmitry Mendeleev”, conducting a field work on the Maclay Coast (New Guinea) and on the other Islands of Oceania. The diaries, drawings, material culture collections, which became the property of Russia due to the long scientific research by Miklouho-Maclay, are the starting point today for scientists around the world who begin researching the North-East of the New Guinea Island. It is especially valuable that the tradition of researching the Maclay Coast by Russians is not broken and the unique journey was reiterated by his full namesake and the great-great-grandnephew from Russia with a team of scientists from Moscow and Saint-Petersburg. How was Maclay from Russia met? What do they remember about the great researcher? What do they know about Russia? How has the life of the Papuans of the Maclay Coast changed in a century and a half? The reader gets the opportunity to dive into a fascinating true story, where he could learn about the private history of the Miklouho-Maclay’s family and the family of the descendants of Tui who was the first to meet a white man as Miklouho-Maclay. The popular science illustrated edition “Journey to the Maclay Coast”, published in May 2018, was compiled of the materials of a unique research expedition on the trail of the Great Russian scientist and researcher of XIX century Nikolay Nikolayevich Miklouho-Maclay. 150 years after, the history revives – Maclay is back!