Nikolay Nikolaevich Miklukho-Maclay: 175th birthday anniversary

This year the world celebrates the 175th anniversary of the birth of Nikolai Nikolaevich Miklouho-Maclay, the famous traveler and great humanist. As a 25-year-old boy, he set foot on the coast of Papua New Guinea and became the first European person who met the indigenous people of those places. Even after a century and a half, this "Maklaev's" discovery excites both romantic travelers and ethnographers. It is no coincidence that the Day of the Ethnographer in Russia is celebrated on July 17 - the birthday of Nikolai Nikolaevich Miklukho-Maclay.

On July 15, on the eve of the 175th anniversary of the birth of Nikolai Nikolaevich, the exhibition "Nikolai Nikolaevich Miklukho-Maclay: on the 175th anniversary of his birth" will open in the Round Hall of the Kunstkamera.

The materials and collections collected by Miklouho-Maclay do not lose their scientific relevance to this day. He stood at the origins of the formation of Russian ethnography as a scientific discipline that combines the study of culture and the external appearance of peoples that do not have their own written history. Nikolai Nikolayevich spent long months in the malaria forests of New Guinea and other remote corners of the planet. "A few days, even hours of personal observation of the natives ... is much more important than memorizing all the literature about this by heart!" - he said.

The original personality of the researcher, a bright and in many ways tragic fate and, of course, an unprecedented contribution to science, made him one of the most famous of our compatriots.

The exhibition in the Round Hall of the Kunstkamera will feature collections of objects brought by N. N. Miklukho-Maclay: he collected them with enthusiasm, because he understood that after a collision with European civilization, the "native world" would quickly change. His famous drawings, made professionally, accurately depicting ethnic features of models, household items and buildings will also be shown. Some of the pictures presented are interesting in that they were created by the author specifically, as illustrations for lectures and messages on his travels and research. Miklouho-Maclay made these messages to the Imperial Russian Geographical Society in 1886. For the first time, Miklouho-Maclay's photographic collection will be presented to a wide audience. During his travels, being in cities, he acquired photographs depicting the natives. They are characterized by the presence of the attributes of traditional culture and staged scenes: women with children and household items, engaged in housework; men with weapons, sometimes depicting a duel. The value of such pictures is that the people depicted in the photographs really are representatives of one or another ethnic group, and the objects are authentic. After the death of Nikolai Nikolaevich Miklouho-Maclay, the photographic materials he collected were kept by his brother Mikhail Nikolaevich, and after his death were transferred to the MAE RAS by his daughter Serafima Mikhailovna Maclay. Only in 2009, a complex of materials was revealed in the museum archive, which made it possible to establish the very fact of their collection by Miklouho-Maclay.