#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.

Virtual Tour

Exhibitions

“CHILDHOOD IN THE GULAG”

Drochia Museum of History, Ethnography and Art

April 1 – 27, 2022

The Museum of Victims of Deportations and Political Repressions (a branch of the National Museum of History of Moldova) in cooperation with the Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania organized on April 1, 2022, at 14:00, the opening of the photo-documentary exhibition "Childhood in the Gulag" at the Museum of History, Ethnography and Art in Drochia (16 Strugurilor Street), with on-site and online presence.

The exhibition brings together about 180 photo-documentary images, accompanied by memoirs and archival documents from the collections of the National Museum of History of Moldova, the Edineț Regional Museum, the Soroca Museum of History and Ethnography, the Archive of the ProMemoria Institute, archives of memory societies from the villages of the Republic of Moldova and especially from the family archives of the victims of the totalitarian-communist regime in the Moldavian SSR.

H.E. Kęstutis Kudzmanas, the Ambassador of the Republic of Lithuania to Chișinău made a welcoming speech at the opening of the exhibition. Ms. Rodica Lozovan, the representative of the Culture, Tourism, Youth and Sports Directorate spoke on behalf of the local authorities. Mr. Dumitru Postovan on behalf of the Drochia Museum of History, Ethnography and Art addressed all participants with the invitation to visit the exhibition from April 1 to 27. Dr. Ludmila Cojocaru, Head of the Museum of Victims of Deportations and Political Repressions, presented to the audience the concept and the main compartments of the photo-documentary exhibition.

The exhibition was accompanied by a round table moderated by Dr. Virgiliu Bîrlădeanu, Head of the Modern History Department at the Institute of History. The round table was attended by representatives of regional museums, students of the Alecu Russo State University Bălți and the State University of Moldova, as well as victims of deportations and political repressions in the Moldavian SSR.

The event ended with a classical music concert in memory of the victims of Stalinist deportations and repressions, as well as the recent child victims of the war in Ukraine.

The photo-documentary exhibition "Childhood in the Gulag" is realized within the Project "Strengthening the European culture of memory by disseminating historical knowledge and promoting democratic values: exchange and implementation of the best practices between Lithuania and the Republic of Moldova" (VB52-1), with the support of The Development Cooperation and Democracy Promotion Program of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Lithuania.