#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

Publications

Journal „Tyragetia"

vol. VIII [XXIII], nr. 2

Aspects of the Moldavian Soviet writers' activity in 1942-1944

ISSN 1857-0240
E-ISSN 2537-6330

Marius Tărîță

Aspects of the Moldavian Soviet writers' activity in 1942-1944

Tyragetia, serie nouă, vol. VIII [XXIII], nr. 2, Istorie. Muzeologie

After June 22, 1941 the Soviet Writers’ Union of Moldavia was inactive for almost a year. In June 1942 the Group of Moldavian Writers under the rule of I. Ciobanu consisted of I. Canna, V. Galiț, L. Deleanu, V. Polyakov (composer), M. Kakhana, and L. Barsky. After the conference of Moldavian writers held in Moscow in September 1942 there were written many letters to the CC of the C(b)P of Moldavia and to the leadership of the Moldavian Writers’ Union. Kakhana wrote about the lack of organization, Canna – about mistakes made by the Writers’ Union in 1940-1941, when such writers as N. Costenco, M. Curicheru, Barcari, and Țurcan were ignored. In January 1944 Bucov criticized Canna and Istru for “Moldovenism”. In his report of March 3, 1944 Canna summarized the work done by 11 members and five young writers of the Union during the war. He also mentioned the necessity of a literary journal and the need to write theater plays about the “historical people’s heroes” – the hospodars Stephen the Great, Vasile Lupu, Alexander the Good, Dimitrie Cantemir and the Bolsheviks Grigory Kotovsky, Sergey Lazo, and others. The first meeting of the writers after their return (with the Red Army) took place on May 26, 1944 at Soroca. The main discussed issues were the work on the hymn of the Moldavian SSR, preparing for the celebrations on June 28, publication of brochures with literary works of members of the Union, etc. This study is based on the documents from the Archives of the Socio-Political Organizations of the Republic of Moldavia (Fund 51, Inventory 1, Folder 107), which contains documents on the activities of the Soviet Writers’ Union of Moldavia from 1942 to August 1944.

List of attachments:

Attachment 1. Meetings held at the Soviet Writers’ Union of Moldavia (January-May 1941) – the date, the author discussed, the referent and participants.

Attachment 2. Timesheet of writers’ presence at the discussions in February-May 1941.

Attachment 3. Work plan of the Group of Moldavian Writers attached to the CC of the C(b)P of Moldavia for the period of from June 1 to October !, 1942.

Attachment 4. Part of the letter of Moses Kakhana-Ardeleanu to the Secretary of the CC of the C(b)P of Moldavia N. Salogor and the Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars M. Konstantinov (15 January 1943).

Attachment 5. The letter of I. Canna to the Secretary of the CC of the C(b)P of Moldavia Zelenchuk concerning the works sent to the State Publishing House of Moldavia (16 September 1943).

Attachment 6. Fragment of Emilian Bukov’s letter in which he criticizes Bogdan Istru and Ion Canna for “Moldovenism” (10 January 1944).

Attachment 7. Report of the Moldavian writer’s organization sent to CC of the C(b)P of Moldavia by I. Canna (3 March 1944).

Marius Tărîță

The Khrushchev Thaw in the literature: the Republican Conference of Young Writers (Chisinau, November 22-24, 1957)

Tyragetia, serie nouă, vol. IX [XXIV], nr. 2, Istorie. Muzeologie Chișinău, 2015