#Exhibit of the Month

The main parts of the camera include the body, bellows, lens, and viewfinder system. The body consists of two lacquered walnut wood frames, joined by a folding black textile bellows that allows the necessary extension for focusing. On the front panel is the Agfa anastigmat lens, mounted in a Compur-type shutter produced by F. Deckel in Munich. It features a foldable "brilliant" viewfinder for both portrait and landscape orientation. It uses glass photographic plates coated with a photographic emulsion, mounted in walnut wood holders, with a frame size of 9x12 cm.
The walnut wood model, considered the flagship "Agfa Isolar Luxus," was designed by the A.H. Rietzschel factory in Munich, acquired by AGFA in 1925, which continued producing this type of camera under its own name until the late 1920s.
The piece was restored by Mihail Culașco, Restoration Department of NMHM.
Brief History of the Camera
The history of the camera spans 200 years, evolving from the camera obscura to today's digital devices. Key milestones include: the first permanent photograph in 1826 by French physicist Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, using a wooden box and a plate coated with bitumen of Judea; the invention of the first photographic process - daguerreotype - in 1839 by Frenchman Louis Daguerre, marking the official birth of photography; the invention of calotype, based on the negative/positive principle, by British physicist and chemist Fox Talbot; the invention of wet collodion plates by Englishman Frederick Scott Archer and dry glass plates by Richard Leach Maddox and John Huds Bennet; the introduction of flexible roll film and the launch of the first Kodak camera by American inventor George Eastman; the release of the first 35 mm film camera by German company "Leica"; the launch of the first instant camera "Polaroid," invented by American Edwin Land. Finally, starting in 1975, this path led to the digital photography revolution. Each successive step made cameras smaller and faster, significantly improving image quality.
The first photographic studio in Chișinău was opened in 1854 by Eduard Glewski, and before World War I, there were already about 100 photography studios in Bessarabia.
The collection of the National Museum of History of Moldova includes over 30 cameras, made in Austria, Germany, France, USSR, Japan, and China, dating from the late 19th century to the 2000s. Among them are folding bellows cameras, BOX-type cameras, single-lens reflex (SLR) and twin-lens reflex (TLR) cameras, as well as digital (DSLR) cameras.

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Exhibitions

„Archaeology in the Republic of Moldova for 22 Years”

August 27 – September 16, 2013

On the Independence Day of the Republic of Moldova, 27 August 2013 the National Museum of History of Moldova opened the exhibition „Archaeology in the Republic of Moldova for 22 Years".

„Archaeology in the Republic of Moldova for 22 Years”

By means of the most valuable exhibits presented in the showcases we tried to show that in over two decades of independence the archaeology of the Republic of Moldova has experienced a new and significant development.

Systematic archaeological investigations and rescue researches brought to light hundreds of new, previously unknown sites. In a few dozen of them, belonging to the times from the Paleolithic period to the Late Middle Ages and Early Modern Epoch, excavations were conducted. Materials discovered in the process of research have revealed in the Prut-Dniester region several new archaeological cultures such as the Neolithic Cris culture, Free Dacians' culture, etc.

The most important materials resulting from the research undertaken in these years by teams of archaeologists (Institute of Cultural Heritage of ASM, National Museum of History of Moldova, State University of Moldova, „Ion Creanga" State Pedagogical University, National Archaeological Agency under the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Moldova) were presented in the basic exhibition of the museum, others have been exhibited in numerous temporary exhibitions.

Along with national exhibitions, archaeological materials found on sites of the Republic of Moldova have been included in international exhibitions organized in scientific centers and museums of Romania, USA, Germany, UK, Italy, Greece and so on, being highly appreciated by the scientific community and the people of culture.

In this period there were drafted new legislation and regulations related to the research and protection of the archaeological heritage. New, previously unused directions of research have appeared: church archeology and urban archeology.

The importance of the archaeological remains discovered in these years in the Republic of Moldova is evidenced by many international projects for the elucidation of multiple aspects of the evolution and development of human communities in ancient and prehistoric period, with the participation of renowned experts from research institutions of Europe and the U.S. The results of these multidisciplinary researches were admitted into the domain of science and culture through publishing an impressive number of academic papers, encyclopedias, monographs, studies and articles in the country and abroad. Some of them were honored with major national and international awards.