#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

Events Archive

A European culture of memory, built with the participation of young people from the Gagauzia ATU and Taraclia district

September 17, 2025

On September 17, 2025, the National Museum of History of Moldova was visited by 70 school-students from the Gagauzia ATU and the Taraclia district, interested in learning about the history and memory of the victims of the Soviet occupation regime in the Moldavian (A)SSR. In the context of the European Heritage Days, the young people had the opportunity to discover personal objects, photographs, documents, diaries, testimonies and archival documents presented in the thematic exhibitions of the MNIM, which reveal the atrocities committed by the totalitarian regime.

The knowledge gained during the study visit will contribute to the promotion of historical memory and the formation of civic consciousness among the younger generation in the Republic of Moldova. "Still in 2024, the curriculum for the optional subject The Communist Totalitarian Regime: Repression and Resistance Movement was approved. This subject is studied by 1026 students of grades 9th and 12th, which demonstrates an increased interest in the recent past of the Republic of Moldova. At the beginning of 2025, the Interministerial Advisory Council for the Memory of Victims of Political Repressions was established - the Council of Memory, created by the Ministry of Education and Research and the Ministry of Culture," noted Ivan Duminica, Head of the Political Service in the Field of Interethnic Relations at the Ministry of Education and Research of the Republic of Moldova.

The event was organized at the initiative of the Ministry of Education and Research of the Republic of Moldova, in partnership with the National Museum of History of Moldova, the Agency for Interethnic Relations and the Institute of History of the State University of Moldova.