#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.

Virtual Tour

Exhibitions

The compartment „Bessarabia in the 19th Century”

(Permanent Exhibition “History and Civilization”)

This compartment of exhibition reflects the history of Bessarabia in the modern time. As a result of the Russo-Turkish War of 1806-1812 (that were fought in the area of Romanian Principalities of Moldova and Wallachia and ended with the conclusion of the Treaty of Bucharest of 16 / 28 May 1812) the Russian Empire annexed the eastern part of the Principality of Moldova (the territory between the Prut and Dniester) and incorrectly extended the name of Bessarabia to all the lands between the Danube and Hotin (the Turkish rayahs of Hotin, Bender, and Ismail were also annexed). The exhibition also aims to reflect the main events which determined the evolution of Bessarabia for 106 years of foreign domination.

The compartment „Bessarabia in the 19th Century”

Administration. One of the main instruments of the imperial policy of integration, standardization, and / or Russification was the provincial administration, a phenomenon illustrated by the Statute of 1828 or "The Concise Code of Laws" by Andronache Donici (1850). The second half of the 19^th century - the era of "great reforms" - have led to the establishment of "zemstvo" in Bessarabia (1869) - a body of local self-administration, focused primarily on the issues related to the daily needs of the population: taxes, welfare, education, medicine, agriculture. In this sense, it should be noted the construction of the impressive buildings of the hospital in Costiujeni and the Zemstvo Museum.

Chisinau is presented in the exhibition as a place of residence of the tsarist military administration, and then as the administrative center of the region (since 1818). Russification has influenced even the architectural look of the town. The intense process of urbanization can be traced through the exhibits: the architectural project of a house from Chisinau, town views of the times: Shumsky's House, Swiss Hotel, as well as the images of outstanding persons: Carol Schmidt, a mayor of Chisinau (1877-1903) and the city's chief architect Alexander Bernardazzi, both of which contributed greatly to the modernization of the city.

Economy. The main features of Bessarabian economy in the period between 1812 and 1918 are presented by items related to agricultural and industrial work. They confirm the almost exclusively agrarian character of the economy of the province, which to some extent also contributed to the process of Russification of the population.

Cultural and scientific life of the province is marked by the appearance of local press. It is official press written almost entirely in Russian. However, there are some publications in Romanian: "Buletinul Eparhiei Chișinăului" („Bulletin of the Eparchy of Chisinau") (1868) "Luminatorul" ("Luminary") (1913), "Cuvant Moldovenesc" ("Moldavian Word") (1915). Other original exhibits reflect the formation of educational system in Bessarabia (a photograph of a group of teachers from the Chisinau Non-Classical Secondary School, "The Initial Course of Romanian language" by I. Doncev (1865), various certificates of graduation) and the activities of some scientific societies from Bessarabia ("Report on the status and activities of the Bessarabian Church Historical and Archaeological Society", "Proceedings of the Bessarabian Society of Naturalists").

In the segment of the exhibition devoted to the rural and urban life of the province the original household items and furniture are incorporated into the reconstructions of a shop showcase, a living room, and a study of the 19^th century. Russian influences in the urban environment clearly contrasts with preserved traditionalism in the villages of Bessarabia.