#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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The National Scientific Conference “Bessarabian Prominent Figures as Part of the National Cultural and Historical Heritage (the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century)”

19 September 2023

On September 19, 2023, the National Scientific Conference “Figures of Bessarabia are part of the national cultural and historical heritage (19^th century – first half of the 20^th century)” was held at the National Museum of History of Moldova; the event was held in a mixed format (physical attendance and online), was dedicated to the European Heritage Days and organized within the framework of the Project “Museum Heritage and Historical Memory: Research, Interpretation, Presentation” (number 20.80009.0807.43) funded by the State Program (2020-2023).

Ms. Elena Postică, Deputy Director of the National Museum of History of Moldova, Ms. Valeria Suruceanu, Director of the Chișinău City History Museum, and Ms. Elena Cojocaru, Deputy Director of the National Museum of Ethnography and Natural History delivered welcoming remarks to those present. The conference continued with a plenary session, where four reports were presented, three from the Republic of Moldova and one from Romania.

24 participants from four countries (France, Romania, Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova) registered for the conference, but 26 reports were presented (two communications were outside the program). The scientific event was held in two sections: “History” and “Culture and Education”, bringing together historians, museographers, journalists and renowned specialists in other fields (religion, education, architecture, medicine, administration, culture, etc.).

During the event, topics related to the role of Bessarabian figures in local and European history, their contribution to the development of Bessarabian society in the 19^th century and the first half of the 20^th century, were discussed through the use of museum collections and historical memory.

The participants’ reports were distinguished by their thematic diversity, new methodological approaches to the issue, the use of interdisciplinary research, new archival materials, and were accompanied by illustrative presentations, graphs and photographs.

The proceedings of the conference are to be published by the end of 2023 in electronic format.