#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.

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Exhibitions

„The Caravan of Gulag Memories”

Itinerant Exhibition at the National Museum of History of Moldova

July 19, 2024

The National Museum of History of Moldova, in collaboration with the Arbor Association for Culture and Arts, organizes the itinerant exhibition "The Caravan of Gulag Memories." This exhibition will present to the general public the testimonies of deportees and victims of the totalitarian-communist regime from the left bank of the Prut during the Soviet period. The aim of the exhibition is to familiarize visitors with the sufferings endured by the population affected by deportations and the repressions of the totalitarian regime. The exhibition includes photographs, artworks, audio, and video testimonies, all designed to provide a detailed and profound image of these tragic events.

The "Caravan of Gulag Memories" exhibition originates from the project "Remembering Childhood: Testimonies of Bessarabian Deportees," opened in 2022 at Arbor.art.room in Bucharest. It is based on extensive documentary research conducted between 1991 and 2021 by the National Museum of History of Moldova, in partnership with the Center of Excellence Pro Memoria Institute, the Institute of History of USM, Alecu Russo State University of Bălți, and B.P. Hasdeu State University of Cahul. The exhibition is curated from an interdisciplinary perspective, presenting a complex installation that illustrates the deportees' journey to exile and the dramas experienced on foreign soil.

The itinerant exhibition "The Caravan of Gulag Memories" will travel between July 9 and 19, 2024, stopping in several locations in Romania and the Republic of Moldova:

July 9 - Bucharest (Faculty of Letters, Edgar Quinet Street No. 5-7, Sector 1)
July 10 - Focșani (Union Square)
July 11 - Iași (CIAC Baia Turcească, Architect G.M. Cantacuzino Street)
July 12 - Nisporeni (National House, Alexandru cel Bun Street No. 5)
July 13 - Plop, Dondușeni (Archangel Michael Street No. 4)
July 14 - Drochia (City Hall, Independence Boulevard No. 15A)
July 15 - Hîncești (Palace of Culture, Mihalcea Hîncu Street No. 140)
July 16 - Căușeni (Alexie Mateevici Street No. 9)
July 17 - Cahul (Independence Square)
July 18 - Avdarma, UTA Gagauzia (Avdarma Village History Museum)
July 19 - Chișinău (National Museum of History of Moldova, 31 August 1989 Street No. 121A)

A special moment of this journey will be the final stop in Chișinău, in the courtyard of the National Museum of History of Moldova, on July 19. The exhibition will be open from 17:00 to 21:00, offering residents and visitors of the capital the opportunity to connect directly with the painful history of deportations and the sufferings endured by Bessarabians during the Soviet period.

The exhibition includes a variety of materials and works designed to provide a comprehensive perspective on the sufferings and dramas experienced by deportees. Actors Cristina Casian, Florentina Țilea, Florina Gleznea, Ionuț Vișan, Marius Turdeanu, and Richard Bovnoczki will read audio testimonies, adding authenticity and emotion to the exhibition. Notable exhibits include the map of the Bessarabian Gulag created by Ramona Iacob in 2022, the animation "The Nameless Kitten" created by Ghenadie Popescu also in 2022, and the artworks "The Pascal Family" and "Mother's Shawl" created by Vasile Rață in 2024.