#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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Exhibitions

"Building Bridges Among Communities"

National Geographic Photo Camp

September 5-19, 2023

The National Geographic Photo Camp is a program that teaches young people from diverse communities how to use photography to tell their own stories, explore the world around them, and develop deep connections with others. The second National Geographic Photo Camp in Moldova took place on May 15-19, 2023, in the city of Comrat within the Autonomous Territorial Unit of Gagauzia. This region in southern Moldova is home to most of the Gagauz community as well as other ethnic groups such as Bulgarians, Ukrainians, and Moldovans/Romanians.

The five-day training was moderated by an international team of four photographers, including one from Ukraine. These experts provided 20 young people (aged 18-25) from refugee communities from Ukraine, the Transnistrian region, and throughout the country with a range of innovative tools and techniques for visual storytelling. This camp also built media literacy skills by giving participants the opportunity to experience firsthand how various factors within their control as creators of visual images (e.g. composition, light, color, mood, etc.) affect the story those images convey.

The young people documented a range of local experiences, traditional museums, family events, the only thoroughbred horse breeding farm in Moldova, the everyday work of carpet weavers, wineries, farmers, bakers, and markets. Guided by National Geographic photographers, the young people created more than 30,000 visual stories, some of which are presented in this exhibition. Feedback from previous camps that Internews and National Geographic have conducted in other countries and environments around the world (including in post-conflict societies, refugee camps, etc.) demonstrates that participants are able to think more critically about how photographs shape viewers perceptions of reality and that exhibition attendees gain a more nuanced view of their own society.

The opening the exhibition will take place on September 5, at 17:00, in Hall no. 1 of the National Museum of History of Moldova, str. 31 August 1989, 121A.