#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

“Everyday Danube. Childhood & Youth in the Danube Region”

June 9 - July 30, 2026

The exhibition "Everyday Danube. Childhood & Youth in the Danube Region" invites visitors on a journey through five Danube countries - Croatia, Slovakia, Germany, Romania, and the Republic of Moldova - to discover the diversity of childhood and adolescent experiences in the 20th century. Through photographs, objects, and personal stories, the exhibition presents a layered image of growing up, revealing a mosaic of experiences: from carefree play and childhood friendships to work, migration, and loss.

We often associate Europe with imposing buildings, major historical events, or intellectual movements such as the Enlightenment. Yet Europe is found above all in everyday life - in gestures, habits, and actions to which we initially attach no significance, precisely because they seem so natural. Childhood and youth experiences have been and remain formative in this regard.

The exhibition is based on the idea that European heritage is not built solely through major historical events, but primarily through small, personal stories - memories, relationships, objects, and spaces that shape childhood. It creates a space for reflection and dialogue between past and present, between individual experience and collective memory.

By looking at childhoods in the Danube region, we learn not only about the past but also about our shared present. Childhood experiences shape our identity as adults, and they are as diverse as the Danube region itself. Depending on the period and social or cultural context, childhoods may be carefree, marked by trauma, fleeting, or enduring.

The exhibition features around forty photographs and artifacts, most from the first half of the 20th century, inviting visitors to reflect on identity, freedom, social expectations, and values passed between generations - to discover what we share and what makes us unique.

The exhibition is a project that connects Chișinău with Slovakia, Croatia, Romania, and Germany through the Danube, and reflects the collaboration between:

- National Museum of History of Moldova, Chișinău, Republic of Moldova
- Museum of Slavonia, Osijek, Croatia
- Slovak National Museum - Museum of Carpathian German Culture, Bratislava, Slovakia
- Institute for Cultural Analysis of Germans from Eastern Europe, Freiburg, Germany

The exhibition was presented in March-April in Osijek (Croatia) and Bratislava (Slovakia) and will be open to the public in Chișinău (Republic of Moldova) until July 30, 2026.

The exhibition is part of the international project "Everyday Danube. Open Educational Resource on Everyday Culture in the Danube Region", funded by the Baden-Württemberg Foundation within the Perspektive Donau program, with support from the Ministry of the Interior, Digitalization, and Local Government of the state of Baden-Württemberg.