#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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Publications

Library „Tyragetia"

Elena Ploșnița, Mihai Ursu

Encyclopedia of Museology of the Republic of Moldova

Series “Biblioteca „Tyragetia” XX, Chișinău, 2011, 308 p. ISBN 978-9975-80-526-1.

Encyclopedia of Museology of the Republic of Moldova is a work dedicated to the museum world of the country. Its content focuses on the most significant museums, the most remarkable personalities in the field. An encyclopedia about museums can not cover everything, but the selected and presented materials reflect the museum sphere in detail.

Encyclopedia of Museology of the Republic of Moldova appeared in late 2011, at the Bons Offices Publishing and Printing House, Chisinau. The authors of the volume are Elena Ploșnița, Ph.D. and Mihai Ursu.

Encyclopedia of Museology of the Republic of Moldova contains ca 300 articles placed in alphabetical order, which provide clear and objective information about the Moldavian museum world since the 19^th century to the present. It is supplemented by the List of Abbreviations, summaries in four languages, List of Sources, Bibliography, Index of Articles, Index of Names, and Index of Localities. Many of the articles have a historical prelude: every phenomenon is presented in its development. Most articles are accompanied by Works and Bibliography, which contain the most important materials on the subject or on the life and work of museums, scientists, and people of culture. Both in the Works and Bibliography, the works are presented in chronological order, regardless of the language they were written.

The work comprises three main blocks of information: museological material (terminology, concepts); historical material (information on museums of the past, different societies, contemporary museums and their collections, etc.); biographical material (information about the museum specialists, collectors, museum supporters, etc.). All the articles are presented in alphabetical order, regardless of the block of information.

The Encyclopedia includes black and white and color illustrations. Special attention was given to illustrations reflecting museum pieces; there are also given images of museum buildings and photos of personalities who have found the right place in the pages of the Encyclopedia. In black and white there are given presently nonexistent museums of the past, collectors, scientists, and museum specialists who are no longer among the living. In color there are presented pieces from the museum collections, buildings of the museums, which are now open to the public, and specialists who are working in the museums today. Most of the photographs were made by Iurie Foca.

The Encyclopedia as any work can be improved; it is a beginning that can be continued by colleagues, curators, historians, and others, in one or another way. We will be grateful to those who would have the courage to continue the presentation of MUSEUM phenomenon in other scientific publications.