#Exhibit of the Month

One of the great technical achievements that revolutionized the idea of time and space, opening a new era in the history of communication, is telegraphy. It is based on the transmission of electrical signals through a cable over long distances, allowing people to communicate instantly. The telegraph spread very quickly and a network of wires stretched around the world.

In 1837, the American painter and physicist Samuel Morse invented the first electromagnetic device for telegraphy, patented in 1840. To send messages by wire, Morse developed in 1838 a simple code of dots and dashes, which represented the letters of the alphabet, known as "Morse code ".

Both Morse code and the telegraph machine were improved over time, with the telegraph becoming the most widespread system of communication and information transmission for more than a century, until the advent of the Internet. The telegraph system consisted of a series of stations repeaters along the transmission line route. Each station had an operator who received and transmitted messages by telegraph. The Morse machine transmitted about 25 words per minute, which were recorded in code on a paper tape. The operator in charge of transmitting the message would decode it and write it on paper using a special typewriter.

In Bessarabia, the telegraph entered in 1860: on April 8, the Bender telegraph station began its activity, and on April 24, the one in Chisinau, following the construction of the first Odesa-Chisinau-Leova telegraph line. Currently, telegraph services have been discontinued. The only ones who still use coded communication are radio amateurs.

The Morse telegraph machine shown comes from the Osinoostrovsky electrotechnical plant, Soviet Union, and dates back to 1934. The exhibit was restored by Mihail Culașco.

Virtual Tour

Exhibitions

“Pious and Hardworking People…” (German Colonists in Bessarabia)

October 12 – December 1, 2010

The thematic exhibition “Pious and Hardworking People…” (German Colonists in Bessarabia) is organized by Moldova-Institut Leipzig and National Museum of Archaeology and History of Moldova in collaboration with National Archives of the Republic of Moldova and National Museum of Ethnography and Natural History and sponsored by the German Embassy in the Republic of Moldova. It is presented by Ute Schmidt, PhD in historical sciences from Freie Universitat (Berlin).

The exhibition is dedicated to German colonists in Bessarabia during the period of 1813 – 1940.

It is divided into two parts. The first part consists of photographs and documents and reflects stages of colonization of the south part of Bessarabia, foundation of the first German villages in Bessarabia (Hoffnungstal, Friedenstal, Alexanderfeld), and the role of the Guardianship Committee for Colonists in Southern Russia (created in 1818) in the process of colonization. Thematic compartments of the part illustrate the life of a German village in the southern Bessarabia, the colonists’ occupations including agriculture, trade and crafts, spiritual life and education: religion, school, ethics, interethnic relations, and world outlook.

The second part of the exhibition consisting of the authentic items (books, documents, photographs, personal belongings) reminds the contemporaries of some persons from the German community from Chisinau in the modern time. In the 19th century in Chisinau there was a German community that numbered about 1000 people who managed to create a cultural association. The items exhibited in this part reflect certain aspects of the life and work of Carl Schmidt, the Chisinau mayor during 1877 – 1903, and Franz Ostermann, the first custodian and taxidermist of the Zemstvo Museum (1889 – 1905).