#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.

Virtual Tour

International Collaboration

2016

From March 2 to April 10, 2016 the National Museum of History of Moldova organized an event celebrating an emblematic personality of the Czech Republic - Václav Havel. The temporary exhibition „Portrait of Václav Havel" was brought to Chișinău by the Czech Center from Bucharest.

Through the German Cultural Center AKZENTE from Chișinău, the German composer Adrian Oswalt gave a public conference on „History of hurdy-gurdy" and a performance of mechanic music at the „Museum Night", May 16, 2016.

Based on the collaboration agreement with Herend Porcelánmanufaktúra Zrt. From Hungary, the MNIM hosted from May 13 to July 12, 2016 an exceptional exhibition of Hungarian porcelain entitled "Herend Glow". On the occasion of the exhibition opening, the museum was visited by dr. Attila Simon, General Director of Herend Porcelain Manufacture.

Five curators from the MNIM participated in the "Days of museographers - memory, consciousness, history", which was held in Bucharest, Romania, on June 6-10, 2016. The project was developed by the Institute "Eudoxiu Hurmuzachi" for Romanians de Pretutindeni, in partnership with the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Moldova. The study visit included workshops and lectures by experts from various museums in the Bucharest, meetings with academics and visits to museums.

MNIM has participated at the organization of the exhibition "Romania in the Great War" which was opened at the National Museum of History of Romania on September 15, 2016. In this order, 25 documents and photos about the situation of Bessarabia during World War I were included in the exhibition and catalog.

From September 21 to 24, 2016 was held the 26th Numismatic Symposium, organized in collaboration with the Institute of Archaeology "Vasile Pârvan" from Bucharest. The event brought together researchers numismatists and collectors from Moldova, Romania, France, Japan, Ukraine, Belarus, Slovakia and Poland.

Based on the cooperation agreement between the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Moldova and the Ministry of National Heritage of Poland, the restorer of the National History Museum of Moldova, Daniela Ferroni, conducted a study visit in Poland in the period of October 10 to 15, 2016. The theme of the documentation visit was "Conservation-restoration of movable heritage, historical monuments and cultural heritage digitization."

Between October 3 to 12, 2016 was implemented the second stage of the Moldovan-German project (National Museum of History of Moldova, Chișinău - Frei Universität, Berlin) which started with verification and research of Sabatinovka culture settlements identified in the valleys of Ialpug river and tributaries.

Based on the cooperation agreement, the Polish Centre in Bucharest organized at the MNIM a temporary exhibition with the theme "War in Polish poster. Krzysztof Dydo Collection". The exhibition is on display from November 3 to 30, 2016.

#Exhibit of the Month

Folding bellows camera, “Agfa Isolar Luxus”. AGFA Company, Munich, Germany, 1928

2016

#Exhibit of the Month