The main body of The Collection of Flags and Streamers in the Croatian History Museum consist of 150 flags and 70 streamers, the oldest among them dating from the 17th century. The content and type in The Collection of Uniforms make it a more modest collection within the Museum. Along with original uniforms it has copies of 18th century uniform from the Military Border.
The Collection of Flags and Streamers
The main body of the Collection in the Croatian History Museum consist of 150 flags and 70 streamers, the oldest among them dating from the 17th century. The Collection was one of the first to be established in at the Museum. The first flags were donated to the National Museum by Zagreb’s city administration in 1858. The cultural and historical value of the flags, as well their study as historical sources were well known to the Nestor of museums, Viktor Hoffiller. In the anniversary edition of ‘Obzor’ from 1910 Hoffiller wrote the following about the National Museum: ‘In the historical collection, the most interesting items from our recent history are those which concern the military exploits of our ancestors... Many of the items in this collection are such that they cannot be exhibited for all to see, but they are there for all those who study our history.’ It was no accident that the flags from this Collection were first shown to the public at the monumental exhibition devoted to Archduke Charles on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Aspern in 1909 in Vienna. The exhibition catalogue lists the Croatian National Museum (Kroatisches Nationalmuseum, Agram) among those loaning exhibits: cavalry standards from the time of Charles VI and the standard of the Pozega Rifle Battalion.
The Collection of Uniforms
The content and type in this Collection make it a more modest collection within the Museum. Along with original uniforms it has copies of 18th century uniform from the Military Border. It has about a hundred parts of uniforms (mostly coats, caps, busbys, trousers) and 300 accessory items – insignia, epaulettes, belts, belt buckles, buttons, satchels. These items were part of the inventory of the History Museum of Croatia, and most of them date from the second half of the 19th century. Unfortunately, the Museum’s documents hold no information about the origin of most of the items and no clues as to the way in which they were acquired. The most numerous items in the Collection are parts of hussar officers’ uniforms – the short tunic (the so-called attila) and the shako (a type of soldier’s cap used in the Hungarian part of the Monarchy). Apart from parts of uniforms from the region of the Hapsburg Monarchy, the Collection also contains parts of uniforms from the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (for the most part belts and insignia).
The Collection of Flags and Streamers and the Collection of Uniforms