#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.

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Events Archive

Meeting (in) visible heroines and movie screening

September 26, 2019

The stories of the 34 women who had the courage to change the world continues!

On the evening of September 26, the National Museum of History of Moldova hosted a meeting organized by the Polish Institute in Bucharest, dedicated to women. At the event, along with Angela Stafii was discussed the situation of women, challenges, dilemmas, histories and valuable lessons.

The participants in the discussion were invited to the screening of the film "The art of making love. The story of Michaline Wisłocka" about the Polish doctor Michalina Wisłocka, who, through her book, a bestseller with the same name published in 1978 and sold in almost 7 million copies, changed the intimate life of the Poles. The personal life of the doctor was, however, extremely complicated. The story of Dr. Wisłocka's life, which takes place in Poland after World War II, is told by the young director Maria Sadowska.

On September 27, the exhibition was visited and appreciated by the Ambassadors of Poland and Romania to the Republic of Moldova, Bartlomiej Zdaniuk and Daniel Ioniță.

The exhibition is not a simple one. Thanks to the determination and moral strength of these women, we have a better living today. We urge you not to overlook them and come to admire them, in a walk along the fence of the National Museum of History of Moldova on 31 August 1989 str., no. 121A, until November 30.

You're welcome!