#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

Interactive visit for children with hearing disabilities

September 25, 2019

Each year, the museum dedicates the last week of September to supporting the social inclusion of young people with hearing disabilities. On September 25, 30 children from the Professional School no. 11 for children with hearing disabilities, from Chișinău, spent together unforgettable moments at the museum.

Even if deafness is a disability that is not visible, young people who have such deficiencies are exposed daily to the risk of not being accepted by society. Most of them had attended special institutions, starting with kindergarten, where they were assisted by professionals of the gestural language. In order to be able to work, most of these persons would need the support of an interpreter of mimicry and gestures. In the Republic of Moldova, only nine specialists in mimicry are authorized for about 5000 people with hearing problems. One of them was invited at the activity organized by the museum to facilitate the children's access to the information displayed in the museum.

There is no way of telling exactly what they liked the most, however the children showed great interest during all three hours spent in the museum. First, they were challenged to mold a prehistoric handmade clay vessel, to spark between two stones and to weave using a weaving installation. Being students at a vocational school, they showed great skill in everything, proving that the deed is worth much more than the word. After that, the children gathered together the pieces from a big puzzle, and the big surprise made by the museum was visit of the volunteers of the Color Party, who taught the children to model puppies and flowers from balloons, and painted the visitors on face and hands in their favorite colors.

This day brought sunshine to the museum. The happiness of the children is encouraging and motivating us to organize such interactive visits more often, because History makes no difference between its descendants. We hope that such activities will raise public awareness, and spread inclusive practices in other public institutions.

The museum always has wide open doors for everyone.