#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

“Hansca – archaeological site and school-site (50 years from the beginning of research)”

April 18 - May 5, 2014

A new exhibition with the generic "Hansca - archaeological site and school-site (50 years from the beginning of research)" was opened to the large public at the National Museum of History of Moldova.

The exhibition reunites about 300 archaeological objects, the most representative from HANSCA collection, which have scientific, documentary, historic and esthetic value.

Exhibition “Hansca – archaeological site and school-site (50 years from the beginning of research)”

The pieces included in the exhibition are authentic with only a very small number of objects being subject to some obvious procedures of restoration and conservation. They reflect economic activities displayed through tools of metal, bone, clay or stone; the esthetic taste shown through clothing and adornment objects; religious representations reflected through miniature pieces, anthropomorphic and zoomorphic and through the „magic kit", all dated with the 4th-3rd centuries BC.

Religious beliefs from the Middle Ages are represented by a cross made from wire and a Byzantine type encolpion. Exchange and commercial relations with the Greek and Roman world, and with the Byzantine and Slavic world later in the Medieval period, are documented by objects of glass, bronze and silver.

The original exhibits are accompanied by panoramic or detailed photographic images which reflect the archaeological investigations conducted by researchers and the active participation of students.

International Day for Monuments and Sites celebrated at the National Museum of History of Moldova

Dedicated to the semicentenary from the first archaeological excavation at the site from Hansca, the exhibition is a tribute to all those who through their dedication and perseverance contributed essentially to the valorification of national archaeological heritage and to an objective reconstruction of historic process.

One of the most important sites with objectives of great scientific interest for the archeology and history of Romanian space east of Carpathians has been discovered and investigated near Hansca village, Ialoveni district. The site from Hansca has been identified in 1959. Already in 1960 were conducted the first surveys and were discovered remains of habitat from Getae-Dacian and early medieval periods.

Systematic archaeological investigations at the site from Hansca began in 1964 and continued during 20 archaeological campaigns. As a result of the excavations a total surface of several thousands of square meters has been uncovered. There were discovered remains dated with the late Bronze Age (Noua culture); early Hallstatt (Tămăoani-Holercani culture); Getae culture; Sântana de Mureș-Cernjahov culture and early and developed medieval period.

Starting with the dimensions of the researched area and the number and diversity of discovered archaeological material, the site from Hansca is rightfully considered to be as one of the most representative ancient and medieval monument from Carpathian-Dniester space.

The site from Hansca played a very special role as archaeological site and school. Here, during the entire period of research, tenth of generations of students from history departments conducted their compulsory archeological internship. At Hansca, the students, many of whom later became renowned archaeologists in the Republic of Moldova, have learned and practiced excavation techniques, methods and methodologies of heritage and artifacts management.