#Exhibit of the Month

Manufactured in 1902 by AG vorm Siedel & Nauman in Dresden, Germany.

Dimensions: Length - 38 cm, Width - 35 cm, Height - 20 cm. Weight - 16 kg. It entered the museum collection in 1984, transferred from the National Museum of Ethnography and Natural History.

The typewriter features a standard carriage mounted on ball bearings and rollers, along with a keyboard equipped with 42 keys. These contain two complete sets of Latin and Cyrillic alphabets, punctuation marks, numbers, and mathematical symbols, enabling the typing of 126 characters. Beneath the metal casing, the type bars are arranged in a fan-like pattern, holding embossed characters and ink ribbon rollers. When the keys are pressed, the type bars strike the inked ribbon, imprinting characters onto the paper tensioned in the machine's roller system.

The side panels are elegantly decorated with refined cast-iron elements in the Art Nouveau style, displaying the brand name - "Ideal." The Polyglott model, featuring a bilingual keyboard patented in the United Kingdom by Max Klaczko from Riga, Latvia, was produced between 1902 and 1913, marking the first typewriter capable of writing in two languages. The "Ideal Polyglott" typewriter was actively sold in the Russian Empire and gained significant popularity in Poland, Bulgaria, and Serbia.
The typewriter - a mechanical device used for printing text directly onto paper - ranks among the most important inventions of the modern era, as it revolutionized communication. From the late 19th century to the early 21st century, it became an indispensable tool, widely used by writers, in offices, for business correspondence, and in private homes. The peak of typewriter sales occurred in the 1950s when the average annual sales in the United States reached 12 million units. In November 2012, the British Brother factory produced what it claimed to be the last typewriter, which was donated to the Science Museum in London.
The advent of computers, word processing software, printers, and the decreasing cost of these technologies led to the typewriter's disappearance from the mainstream market, turning it into a museum exhibit.
June 23 marks Typewriter Day, commemorating the date when American journalist and inventor Christopher Latham Sholes patented his typewriter. This day celebrates the simple yet revolutionary device that has become history, as well as the remarkable literary achievements it has enabled since 1868.

Virtual Tour

Exhibitions

"Czech Castles in the Heart of Moldova"

May 15 – June 16 2024

On May 15, at 16:30, in the upstairs hall of the National Museum of History of Moldova, the exhibition "Czech Castles in the Heart of Moldova" will be inaugurated, organized in partnership with the National Museum of the Czech Republic and the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Chisinau.

This exhibition presents a selection of 11 of the most interesting castles and chateaux of Bohemia and Moravia, two of the historic areas that make up the Czech state. The criterion for the selection of the localities has been their historical significance as well as their architectural, artistic, and historical value. A prominent position is occupied by sites of European importance, including not only those already on UNESCO's list (Prague, Český Krumlov, Kroměříž, Lednice-Valtice Cultural Landscape) but also several other potential candidates (e.g. Karlštejn, Křivoklát, Jindřichův Hradec). This selection also includes impressive and romantic ruins (e.g. Bezděz), castles turned into imposing chateau-like residences (e.g. Hluboká nad Vltavou) and modern palaces surrounded by splendid parks (e.g. Jemniště, Lednice). The exhibition thus opens up the space to create a mosaic that informs us about selected cultural treasures and in part also about works of art and furnishings. We believe that the exhibition will provide not only an aesthetic experience and information but also motivation for a closer investigation into castles and chateaux, as well as an invitation to visit the Czech Republic.

The Czech Republic abounds in cultural treasures, among which castles and chateaux as historical residences of the social elite, of rulers, of the aristocracy, and of religious institutions attract special attention. Castles, fortified residences of the Middle Ages, were built from the twelfth to the early sixteenth century. In the modern era (from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century) they were replaced by comfortable and often sumptuously furnished chateaux. The fact that the Czech Republic ranks among the countries with the highest density of these remarkable buildings per square kilometer and that they are preserved in such an unusually authentic form gives us every right to call it a "country of castles and chateaux." Most accessible sites are managed by the National Heritage Institute or by various museums, towns, municipalities, and private persons, including descendants of the historic Czech noble families.

The exhibition "Czech castles in the heart of Moldova" can be visited between May 15 - June 16, 2024, in the upstairs hall of the National Museum of History of Moldova, Chisinau, 31 August 1989 street, 121A.

#Exhibit of the Month

"Ideal" Mechanical Typewriter, Model A Polyglott

"Czech Castles in the Heart of Moldova"

May 15 – June 16 2024

#Exhibit of the Month