#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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Research Research Projects

"Identification, documentation, research, and promotion of the museum collections" (2011-2012)

Currently the museum realizes a project on identification, documentation, research, and promotion of the museum collections (2011-2012).

The museum's property as a part of national heritage is an important factor for preservation of the identity and cultural and national values, sustainable development, social harmony, and intercultural dialogue in the country and abroad. The museum's property is indispensable for a balanced and complete life; it must be documented, researched, preserved and made accessible to the public and scientists. Research and presentation of the values are a means to guarantee everyone the right of access to resources of cultural values for the better understanding of the national and world history and culture, both at present and in the future. Knowledge and the scientific and public use of museum collections should be recognized a natural consequence of the role and place of museum institutions in contemporary society.

The project is focused on two main objectives:

- Scientific documentation of the archaeological collections, which involves the identification of their origin, identification of the conditions under which they were found, establishing their cultural and historical (museum) significance. This documentation is essential and fundamental for the scientific research, conservation, and knowledge of archeological artifacts;

- Research of the collections of documents, which will result in the new forms of publication of the research results: scientific catalogs, directories, encyclopedic editions) and also contribute to the democratization of the museum and broadening of the public access to museum property values.

The project will contribute to the development of quality standards for scientific records of museum values, to scientific and cultural dialogue on the national and international level based on the reporting of the research results, and to awakening in the society the consciousness of cultural and historic heritage values.