#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.

Virtual Tour

Events Archive

The Round table “Unforgettable memories: the drama of the Bessarabians deported during the Operation ‘Sud’ of July 5-6, 1949”

Academy of Sciences of Moldova, July 4, 2024

On July 4, 2024, in the premises of the Academy of Sciences of Moldova, the Round table "Unforgettable memories: the drama of the Bessarabians deported during the operation ‘SUD' of July 5-6, 1949" took place, an event organized by the Academy of Sciences of Moldova, in partnership with the National Museum of History of Moldova, the "Alecu Russo" State University of Balti, the Moldova State University, the "Bogdan-Petriceicu Hasdeu" State University of Cahul, the "Nicolae Iorga" Institute of History of the Romanian Academy, the Museum of the Country of Crișurilor from Oradea (Romania).

The full members, corresponding members and designated members of Academy of Sciences of Moldova, scientific researchers, teaching staff, museographers, among them: acad. Ion Tighineanu, mem. cor. of the ASM Ion Hadârcă and dr. hab. Liliana Condraticova (Academy of Sciences of Moldova), dr. hab., univ. prof. Anatol Petrencu and dr. hab. Zinaida Bolea (Moldova State University), dr. Ludmila D. Cojocaru (National Museum of History of Moldova), dr. Claudia-Florentina Claudia Dobre (Institute of History "Nicolae Iorga" of the Romanian Academy, Bucharest), as well as via online took the floor dr. Liudmila Chiciuc ("Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu" State University of Cahul), Maxim Avădănii (National Museum of History of Moldova), dr. Marina Miron (Moldova State University), Mariana Mihailevschi (Balti Museum of Ethnography and History). The speakers brought up topics such as the drama and resistance of Bessarabians deported in the second wave of Stalinist deportations; memory and the assumption of witness status by survivors of deportations; the traumas and overcoming the tragedy that thousands of Bessarabians went through, the psychological and emotional consequences following these people to this day; the return to the Moldavian SSR and their efforts to be integrated into society; the role of national and local museums in perpetuating the history and memory of people who passed through the Soviet Gulag; the experience of Romanian researchers in elucidating the phenomenon of totalitarianism and the problems related to the deportations in Bărăgan (June 17-18, 1951).

During the Round table took place the launch of the collection of studies "The drama of the Bessarabians: 75 years since the Stalinist deportations from the Moldavian SSR during the SUD Operation (July 5-6, 1949)" (Iași-Chisinau, 2024, 264 p. + il. ), coordinated by dr. hab. Liliana Condraticova, dr. Ludmila D. Cojocaru and dr. Lidia Pădureac. The publication brings to the attention of the general public the history and memory of the Stalinist deportations in the Moldavian SSR, the editors and authors being focused mainly on the events of July 1949. Researching the aspects as arrests, deportations, political repressions of the Soviet occupation, as well as the anti-Soviet resistance movement in the Moldavian SSR comes to contribute to the historical knowledge on the phenomenon of totalitarianism and its impact on today's society in the Republic of Moldova.

During the Round table, in the Gallery of Art, Innovation and Science of the ASM, the opening of the exhibition with reproductions of jewelry items made by the famous jeweler Alexei Marco (1935-1992), deported from the Moldavian SSR as a result of Operation "South", took place.

The participants of the event reiterated the importance of disseminating historical knowledge to the larger public, mentioning the open access offered by the National History Museum of Moldova to the four-volume collection "Memory Book. Catalog of the victims of communist totalitarianism" (coord. and scientific ed. Elena Postică).

Also, the participants of the Round table concluded that it is imperative for the state to pay attention to the issue of deportations by supporting scientific investigations within a state program, similar to the one implemented between 2015-2018 (coordinated by dr. hab., univ. prof. Anatol Petrencu), as well as the revision of some legislative acts with reference to the people who went through the experience of Stalinist deportations from the Moldavian SSR.