#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.

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Book issue „Dreptul la proprietate și la moștenire al femeilor din Moldova și țările vecine (secolele XIV-XVII). Studii și documente” by Lilia Zabolotnaia

February 23rd, 2016

Tuesday, February 23rd, 2016, 15.00 hours, at the National Museum of History of Moldova (Blue Hall) was issued the volume: Lilia Zabolotnaia „Dreptul la proprietate și la moștenire al femeilor din Moldova și țările vecine (secolele XIV-XVII). Studii și documente". (Property and inheritance rights of women in Moldovan and neighboring countries (fourteenth to seventeenth centuries). Studies and documents). Seria Istoria la feminin, Editura: Lexon-Prim, Chișinău, 2015, -351 p.

The publication provides new insights and valuable research suggestions for women history - a new discipline of historical anthropology, distant from political and economic areas. This field was for a long time absent from the focus of fundamental academic research. The study is an analysis of the social and legal status of women in medieval society in Moldova compared with that of Walachia and Transylvania, also with that of Poland, Lithuania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Serbia and Russia.

For the first time were approached, using the comparative method, the following issues: legal status, social and economic impact of women in the family and society: equal rights with men to property and inheritance of property (movable and immovable), right of women to divorce, the right and hereditary succession of illegitimate children (to power and property) etc.

The originality of the work lies in defining a new definition of social and legal status of women in Moldova, achieved through methodical comparison of the characteristics unique to Moldova with those in other countries. This study of status highlighted the particularity of Moldova in the research field, revealing unknown features. One important conclusion of the study is the unique legal situation of women in medieval Moldova in European wider context - Moldovan women had many legal freedoms and privileges guaranteed by law and customary land.

The monograph is important under a practical aspect by highlighting certain interdisciplinary areas little known and researched: family history, privacy, spiritual and moral development of society, everyday mentality, history of personalities, women's history, political, social and economical history seen through human and demographic factors, sociology and history of law etc.

The volume represents a new vision of women history and serves as a source of research for professionals interested in the field and reading enthusiasts that will be captivated by new pages of a different history.

The launch event was attended by researchers, museographers, university professors, representatives of the accredited diplomatic corpse in Chisinau. Speakers: dr. hab., prof. Eugen SAVA, general director of the National Museum of History of Moldova; dr. hab., prof. Victor ŢVIRCUN, coordinating academician of Humanities and Art Section of ASM; dr. hab. Mariana ȘLAPAC, corresponding member of ASM; dr. Tamara NESTEROV, coordinating researcher at the Institute of Cultural Heritage of ASM; dr. Ana BOLDUREANU, head of Medieval History and Numismatics Section of the National Museum of History of Moldova; dr. Alina Felea, senior researcher at the Institute of History of ASM; journalist Boris MARIAN.

Book issue „Dreptul la proprietate și la moștenire al femeilor din Moldova și țările vecine (secolele XIV-XVII). Studii și documente” by Lilia Zabolotnaia

Connected with the book issue is the exhibition "Women History in Images" organized on the upper lobby of the museum. The exhibition offers the public an opportunity to see old women images preserved on wall pictures (frescoes) and portraits owned by museums abroad or kept in private collections, images that present in a kaleidoscopic way the historical past, capturing everyday life, spirituality and morality of each period.