#Exhibit of the Month

One of the great technical achievements that revolutionized the idea of time and space, opening a new era in the history of communication, is telegraphy. It is based on the transmission of electrical signals through a cable over long distances, allowing people to communicate instantly. The telegraph spread very quickly and a network of wires stretched around the world.

In 1837, the American painter and physicist Samuel Morse invented the first electromagnetic device for telegraphy, patented in 1840. To send messages by wire, Morse developed in 1838 a simple code of dots and dashes, which represented the letters of the alphabet, known as "Morse code ".

Both Morse code and the telegraph machine were improved over time, with the telegraph becoming the most widespread system of communication and information transmission for more than a century, until the advent of the Internet. The telegraph system consisted of a series of stations repeaters along the transmission line route. Each station had an operator who received and transmitted messages by telegraph. The Morse machine transmitted about 25 words per minute, which were recorded in code on a paper tape. The operator in charge of transmitting the message would decode it and write it on paper using a special typewriter.

In Bessarabia, the telegraph entered in 1860: on April 8, the Bender telegraph station began its activity, and on April 24, the one in Chisinau, following the construction of the first Odesa-Chisinau-Leova telegraph line. Currently, telegraph services have been discontinued. The only ones who still use coded communication are radio amateurs.

The Morse telegraph machine shown comes from the Osinoostrovsky electrotechnical plant, Soviet Union, and dates back to 1934. The exhibit was restored by Mihail Culașco.

Virtual Tour

Exhibitions

"The Coronation of King Ferdinand and Queen Maria. 1922"

A painting by Elena Bria, exhibited for the first time in the Republic of Moldova at NMHM

10 May – 31 August 2024

The National Museum of History of Moldova in partnership with the Embassy of Romania in the Republic of Moldova announces the premiere exhibition in Chisinau of the painting "The Coronation of King Ferdinand and Queen Maria. 1922", author Elena Bria. The opening will take place on May 10, at 16:00 in the Blue Hall.

The painting "The Coronation of King Ferdinand and Queen Maria. 1922" with dimensions 295x383 cm, executed in the oil on canvas technique, was painted in 2018 by the artist Elena Bria, as a graduation work at the "Ilya Repin" Academy of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Since the defense of the license was set for the summer of 2018, the year of the Centenary of the Great Union, the artist decided to commemorate this complicated but also beautiful stage in the history of our country by creating a life-size artistic reconstruction of the symbolic day of the Great Union - Coronation Day. The work on the painting began in the 4th year of studies, but the compositional searches and the execution of hundreds of sketches began as early as 2015. Thus, only after 2 years did the artist decide on the final sketch. To start working on the canvas itself, the artist documented from all possible sources about the day of October 15, 1922 and sewed all the costumes of the characters involved in the composition, later to be painted from nature and to receive a result as close as possible to reality. In January 2018, Elena puts the first touches on the future painting. After 6 months of hard work, he reaches the finalization of the details and the painting itself. And, in July 2018, his presentation at the licensure exam takes place, after which the painting is decorated with the highest mention by the examination committee.

In 2022, the painting was exhibited in Bucharest, as part of the personal exhibition "New Academia" at the Kulterra gallery. From October 15, 2022, until the end of 2023, the painting was presented to the public in Alba Iulia, at the Unirii Museum in the Unirii Hall, the place where the Coronation took place. From May 10 to August 31, 2024, the painting will be integrated into the permanent exhibition, in the Blue Hall of the National History Museum of Moldova, after which it will be exhibited in two other exhibitions in Romania.

Elena Bria was born on July 4, 1992 in Chisinau, Moldova, in a family of biathletes. At the age of 11, he began his studies at the "Igor Vieru" Fine Arts High School in Chisinau, where he met the teacher and painter Stanislav Babiuc, who laid the foundations for his academic painting. Later, in 2012, Elena continued her studies at the "Ilya Repin" Academy of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in Saint Petersburg, Russia, from which she graduated with honors in 2018. The artist's works were exhibited in several exhibitions in the United States of America, Russia, Romania and the Republic of Moldova. In 2019 he won the Philip de Laszlo prize at the international exhibition at the Mall Galleries, London, and in 2022 he won the first prize at the international exhibition at the Salmadundi Club, New York. He is currently a member of the prestigious art-club Salmagundi, New York. His paintings can be found in many private collections around the world. In the autumn of this year, as part of the "The Lunar Codex" project, the digital version of the "Three Muses" painting will be sent to the Moon, in a time capsule.

The painting "The Coronation of King Ferdinand and Queen Maria. 1922" can be visited between May 10 - August 31, 2024, in the Blue Hall of the National Museum of History of Moldova, Chisinau, 31 August 1989 street, 121A.