#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

Scientific Conference “The Gorbachev Era and the Transformations in the Communist Bloc”

September 21, 2025

On September 21, 2025, the Blue Hall of the National Museum of History of Moldova hosted the proceedings of the scientific conference "The Gorbachev Era and the Transformations in the Communist Bloc", an event organized in partnership with the Institute of History of the State University of Moldova and the National Institute for the Study of Totalitarianism of the Romanian Academy, with the support of the Cooperation for Development and Democracy Promotion Program of the MFA of the Republic of Lithuania.

The scientific meeting is part of the series of multi-annual joint actions, bringing together researchers from both banks of the Prut: dr. hab. Florin ABRAHAM, director of the National Institute for the Study of Totalitarianism of the Romanian Academy; dr. Florin-Răzvan MIHAI, scientific researcher III at the National Institute for the Study of Totalitarianism of the Romanian Academy; Dr. Ana-Maria CĂTĂNUȘ, scientific researcher II at the National Institute for the Study of Totalitarianism of the Romanian Academy; Dr. Constantin HLIHOR, associate professor, University of Bucharest; Dr. Vasile BUGA, researcher at the "Florin Constantiniu" Center for Russian and Soviet Studies within the National Institute for the Study of Totalitarianism; Dr. Virgiliu BÎRLĂDEANU, head of the Contemporary History Section of the Institute of History of USM; Dr. Octavian ȚÎCU, coordinating scientific researcher at the Institute of History of USM; Dr. hab. Elena NEGRU, senior scientific researcher at the Institute of History of USM; Dr. Anatol ȚĂRANU, coordinating scientific researcher at the Institute of History of USM; Dr. hab. Ion ȘIȘCANU, senior scientific researcher at the Institute of History of USM; Dr. Gabriela ȚĂRANU, scientific researcher at the Institute of History of USM. The speakers discussed the transformations and the role of Gorbachev's reforms in the political evolution of the communist bloc states, the phenomenon of "Gorbymania" and its impact on the Cold War, the role of reforms in the collapse of the USSR and the post-communist transition, reactions to perestroika and glasnost, the national revival in the Moldavian SSR and the genesis of the Transnistrian conflict.

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The event was organized within the framework of the project "Partnership for strengthening societal resilience by promoting democratic values and disseminating historical knowledge: exchange of experience and application of best practices between the academic community and civil society organizations in Lithuania and Moldova", implemented with the support of the Cooperation for Development and Promotion of Democracy Program of the MFA of the Republic of Lithuania.