From February 18, 2023, the exhibition project "From negative to positive" starts working at the National Historical Museum of the Republic of Belarus.

Photography is an outstanding invention that has influenced the life of all mankind. Thanks to photography, people have the opportunity to preserve images of the surrounding world not only with the help of art, but also with the help of technology. And for posterity, photography is a valuable source for the preservation and study of historical heritage.

The date of the invention of photography technology by the decision of the IX International Congress of Scientific and Applied Photography is considered to be 1839, when a report on daguerreotype (an early photographic process based on the photosensitivity of silver iodide) was presented at a meeting of the French Academy of Sciences.

The first photographs were named daguerreotypes in honor of their inventor Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre. Images on daguerreotypes in the 1840s – 1850s were fixed on silver or silver-plated copper plates. The process was very complicated and expensive. In the 1850s, ambrotypes (images on glass) and pherotypes (images on metal) began to appear. At the same time, photography penetrated the lands of modern Belarus. The first photos are very rare, poorly studied and of historical value.

The exhibition "From negative to positive" presents original daguerreotypes, ambrotypes and pherotypes since the 1840s, unique postcards and photographs, cameras and rare printed photographic publications (late XIX – early XX centuries).

A photo zone is organized for visitors of the exhibition.

The museum is open: from 11.00 to 19.00

Seven days a week

The cash register is working: 11.00 – 18.30

The entrance of visitors: 11.00 – 18.30