#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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Events Archive

Inauguration of the exhibition "Fashion and lifestyle in the 20th century" from the clothing collection of the National Museum of History of Moldova

May 18, 2023

On May 18, on the occasion of the International Day of Museums, at the National Museum of History of Moldova took place the opening of a real thematic exhibition, entitled "Fashion and lifestyle in the 20th century" from the clothing collection of the National Museum of History of Moldova . This impressive exhibition highlights 20th century clothing, carefully collected and preserved by our museographers.

We proudly present over 200 pieces of clothing, footwear and accessories of historical, artistic and memorial value. These objects were worn by characters who lived on the territory of Moldova throughout a century, managing to string together the story of fashion and social and personal life, from great-grandfather to great-grandson.

The exhibition aims to highlight the evolution of clothing in accordance, more or less, with fashion trends. It reveals the lifestyle of the country's inhabitants over the past century and how tastes have changed in relation to Eastern, Western and Soviet influences.

Thanks to the curator of the exhibition, Aurelia Cornețchi and a team of dedicated museographers, the exhibition offers the visiting public an engaging and informative experience. The exhibition approach is supported by a series of original or unknown photographs from the museum collection, which capture aspects of everyday life, with ordinary people and personalities of the time, focusing attention on the evolution of fashion and clothing.

The exhibition "Fashion and lifestyle in the 20th century" can be visited in room no. 2, ground floor, between May 18, 2023 and January 31, 2024, the National Museum of History of Moldova, 31 August 1989 street, 121A.