The National History Museum of Romania (MNIR) is currently hosting the Romania 1964 – American students discover a river linking changing worlds exhibition, which allows  Romanians  and foreign visitors to discover Romania as it was 50 years ago, seen through the eyes of seven American students, as well as through photos, articles, and documents from that period.

The exhibition displays an overview of the “1964 Romania” reflected in parallel mirrors, according to a statement of the museum.

On the one hand, the exhibition shows the image of an “unknown” country situated beyond the Iron Curtain, along a large European river, that flows into the Black Sea, as it was seen by a group of seven American students of Dartmouth College in the US, who rowed in traditional canoes along the Danube, from its springs to Sfantu Gheorghe, passing through Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and Romania.

The second overview of the 1964 Romania is a more “internal” one, based on documents kept in the collections of the National History Museum, in archives and Romanian libraries.

“The two overviews put together restore the image of a “socialist” country from 50 years ago, that was undergoing a process of changing and reestablishing its identity, about to evolve further away from the Soviet Union,” reads the museum’s statement.

The two overviews are recreating a part of Romania that no longer exists. “Even some details of Romania’s geography and fauna do not resemble at all to what the American students saw in 1964, for example: the Babakai Cliff and Ada-Kaleh Island have disappeared under the waters of the Hydroelectric Power Station: the Iron Gates and the sturgeons, belugas and the Danube sturgeons are extinct species as well”.

The exhibition is open at the National History Museum in Bucharest until July 20, from Wednesday to Sunday, between 10,00 and 18,00.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com

(photo source: mnir.ro)