Rare map of the Cenderawasih Bay in West Papua, New Guinea, Indonesia. Published in the year 1869 by Carl Benjamin Hermann von Rosenberg, a German naturalist who published a few books and several articles on the East Indies, where he describes the geography, zoology, linguistics and ethnography of the islands.

The German zoologist and geographer Von Rosenberg's (1817-1888) arrived in the Dutch East Indies in 1840, and was immediately sent to Padang on Sumatra, in order to assist Franz Junghuhn. He travelled widely to places that were then little known between 1840-1870, exploring areas in Sumatra, the Moluccas, and certain regions of Teluk Cendrawasih (Geelvink Bay) of West Irian. He concentrates mainly on the natural environment of each region he visited, but also includes special sections on the people and their customs. The book where is map come from on New Guinea is one of his best known publications, containing beautiful plates.

In late 1839 he enlisted in the Dutch Harderwijk, and soon afterwards was stationed in the Netherlands East Indies as a military cartographer, tasked with making topographical surveys. He spent 30 years of his life working in the East Indies. From 1840 until 1856, Rosenberg was a topographical draughtsman on Sumatra and its neighboring islands. Afterwards he was a civil servant, working as a cartographer and surveyor in the Moluccas and western New Guinea. He was a member of the Etna expedition. Rosenberg had a keen interest in ornithology, and beginning in the 1860s, collected specimens in the Indies for study and classification by Hermann Schlegel at the natural history museum of Leiden. He returned to Europe in 1871, and died in the Hague, Netherlands in 1888.

Cenderawasih Bay,

Cenderawasih Bay is a large bay to the northwest of the Indonesian province of Papua, north of the province of Central Papua, and east of the province of West Papua, between the Bird's Head Peninsula and the mouth of the Mamberamo River. The bay is more than 300 kilometers wide. The coastline from Manokwari, in the northwest of the bay, to Cape d'Urville at the mouth of the Mamberamo is more than 700 kilometers long. To the south, the Wandammen peninsula heads north into the bay. Important places along the coast are Manokwari, Ransiki, Wasior and Nabire. The Wamma River, Tabai River, Warenai River, and Wapoga River empty into the Bay.

This map comes from a 1869 publication entitled 'Reistochten naar de Geelvinkbaai''. This is an genuine antique map, and not a modern reproduction.

(The image shown of this print is created from separate scans joined together, and might be joined imperfectly at some parts. We are happy to send you photographs if the complete map)