#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

Research Research Projects

International scientific project „Historic site Camp of King Charles XII of Sweden - valorisation and promotion”

I. PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION

Friday, April 8, the National Museum of History of Moldova organised a special event in the village of Varnița - the official launch of project „Historic site Camp of King Charles XII of Sweden from Varnița - valorisation and promotion"/SITVAR...

II. INFORMATION REGARDING PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION

MAY 2016

Topographic research

Land topography

Topographic research included: Control topographic survey - 2016 Scale 1:500; were assigned: land with existing borders and all objectives, reconstituted land, land reconstituted according the cadastral plan (10.06-1992), comparison of plans for 2011-2016, comparison of plans for 1992-2011, field research from 1993. The research revealed that existing land borders differ with minor errors from the borders indicated in the documents of ownership.

Three objectives were identified on the ground:

Monument (obelisk) dedicated to King Charles XII of Sweden
Monument (stele) dedicated to hetman Ivan Mazepa
A cellar from the nineteenth century.

JUNE 2016

Land cleaning

In May 2016 were started the works for cleaning the land where the historic site Camp of the King Charles XII of Sweden is located from unnecessary vegetation. The work was coordinated by Varnița local public authorities. A group of youth and members of Association Woman. Hope. Future. were involved in these works. The aim was to prepare the land for magnetometric research. During this activity were identified a foundation of some stone structure, certain archaeological objects. In this connection, professional archaeologists from Chișinău and Odessa (V. Levciuk, I. Sapojnikov) were invited in Varnița who found unnecessary magnetometric research, but deemed necessary archaeological excavation research.

Historic and documentary research

The researchers from the National Museum of History of Moldova have studied the funds of the museum archive and the National Archive of Moldova for documents related to the history of installing the monument dedicated to King Charles XII of Sweden in Varnița. Research in the National Archives of Romania is to be undertaken.

JUNE-JULY 2016

Archaeological excavations

A group of archaeologists from the National Museum of History of Moldova have conducted archaeological excavations, their funding being provided by the National Museum of History of Moldova. During excavations a foundation of a stone structure was found, in further research the specialists will determine with exactness the purpose of the building. The shape of the structure is rectangular, size is 25x10m, south-north oriented. We can assume that this is the Chancellery of King Charles XII of Sweden, based on archive data and plans of the camp of the Swedish king in Varnița published over time.

Elaborated projects

In June and July were drafted the project of restoration of the monument of King Charles XII of Sweden situated in the historic site Camp of King Charles XII of Sweden in Varnița, project of land development of the historic site, project on conservation of discovered remains identified during archaeological excavations.

AUGUST 2016

On August 2 was held the meeting of the National Council for Public Monuments where were discussed and approved the projects on land development of the historic site, the project of restoration of the monument of King Charles XII of Sweden, the project of conservation of stone structures identified during archaeological excavations. The projects should be implemented further on.

AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2016

Conservation of the vestiges discovered during the archaeological excavations is underway, including conservation of the Royal Chancellery wall. Also the monument consecrated to King Charles XII of Sweden is undergoing restoration works. The works are conducted by S.R.L. Softconstruct (Anenii Noi).