#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

„The Ambassador of Transdniestrian Molovata”

April 28th - June 27th, 2016

On April 28, 2016, at the National Museum of History of Moldova was opened the exhibition „The Ambassador of Transdniestrian Molovata" celebrating 80 years from the birth of Anatol Codru.

Anatol Codru, a poet known across all Europe, has marked the history of our national culture with his great and genuine personality, a bivalent man of art who served faithfully during his entire life two art fields embraced with an inexplicable love - poetry and cinematography.

He became famous for his memorable poetry volumes and documentary films dedicated to our ancestors and various personalities that are pat of the spiritual and artistic heritage of the nation: Dimitrie Cantemir, Mihai Eminescu, Ion Creangă, Vasile Alecsandri, Alexandru Plămădeală, Nicolai Costenco etc.

After the first volume of poetry „Nopți albe" (White Nights), edited in 1962, and the first documentary film „Trânta" (The fight), made in 1968, followed other 30 films and several books of poetry which are unique in the landscape of modern national and international lyrics of the twentieth century.

For his remarkable achievements in the art of writing and filmmaking, Anatol Codru has been awarded numerous national and international awards, state awards, including the State Prize of the MSSR, the medal Mihai Eminescu and Order of the Republic.

Anatol Codru was the president of the Union of the Cinematographers of Moldova, honorary member of the Academy of Sciences of Moldova and of the International Film Academy „Nika" from Russia.

The exhibition "The Ambassador of Transdiestrian Molovata" brings together about 250 photographs, documents, books of poems, awards, antiques, etc. objects that show the most significant events and aspects form the activity of this distinguished personality of national history and culture. Also, the exhibition is a first attempt to valorise through museum exhibition the great cultural heritage of the poet and film director Anatol Codru.

The opening ceremony was attended by distinguished men of culture, friends and colleagues of the late Anatol Codru.

Several guests spoke about Anatol Codru's personality and great contribution to the development of national culture and the promotion of national and universal values: Gheorghe Postică, deputy minister of culture; Eugen Doga and Nicolae Dabija, academicians; Arcadie Suceveanu, president of the Union of Writes of Moldova; Sandu Vasilache, director of the film studio „Moldova-Film"; Dumitru Olărescu, writer; Boris Movilă, publicist etc.

The exhibition opening ceremony culminated with the presentation of some fragments from the most popular documentary films created by Anatol Codru.

#Exhibit of the Month

"Ideal" Mechanical Typewriter, Model A Polyglott

„The Ambassador of Transdniestrian Molovata”

April 28th - June 27th, 2016

#Exhibit of the Month