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 17^th 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 100^th 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.

Flags from the Collection were exhibited for the first time in Croatia during the cultural and historical exhibition to celebrate the 1000^th anniversary of the Croatian Kingdom in 1925. On that occasion 18 flags from the Historical Collection were exhibited at the Archaeological Museum, which was at the time located on the ground floor of the Academy Building; the exhibited flags, all of them significant for the history of the city, included flags of the Zagreb guard and the first Croatian tricolour from 1848, as well as flags of guilds from Zagreb.

The flags in the Collection can be classified into several groups according to their purpose, type and style: military flags, state flags, coronation flags, flags of Bans and counties, flags from 1848, flags with elements of state symbols, flags of guilds, civic and political associations.

The character of our Collection of flags, the main body of which is made up of military flags and flags with elements of national and state symbols, confirms the aspiration of the National Museum’s Cultural and Historical Department, which, taking as its model the Military History Museum in Vienna, collected and catalogued items which were primarily connected to the political and military history of the Triune Kingdom of Croatia, Dalmatia and Slavonia. In this way the Museum wanted to assert itself as a ‘state’ museum.

The most numerous group of flags are those of infantry regiments and battalions, as well as cavalry flags decorated with symbols of the Hapsburg dynasty: they belonged to military formations from the Military Border. The flags came to the Museum as a result of a recommendation made by the Royal Regional Government of Croatia, Dalmatia and Slavonia, which at the end of the 19^th century suggested to the church authorities in Zagreb that the military flags which were for centuries kept in churches be handed over for safekeeping at the National Museum following the demilitarisation of the Military Border (1881). This group of flags includes three banderium standards of nobles from the 17^th and 18^th century (Cikulini, Patacic, Erdody), as well as flags of the Croatian and Hungarian Home Guards with a border in the colours of the Croatian tricolour.

The second most numerous group of flags are those of the Croatian Falcon from the first decades of the 20^th century. Societies of the Croatian Falcon played an important part in preserving the Croatian national identity in monarchist Yugoslavia.

The Collection also includes the flags of Croatian Bans (Vlasic, Jelacic and Sokcevic), flags of Croatian kingdoms used at coronations of Hapsburgs as kings of Croatia and Hungary, as well as Croatian coats of arms, and flags of nation states. Some of these flags are more than just ordinary museum items: they are important military sources, since their content is a symbolic illustration of the status of Croatia within the framework of lands under the Hapsburg crown.

The group of flags from 1848, especially Croatian tricolour flags of town guards and volunteer companies, are an authentic historical source from the period of the movement of 1848.

Also a part of the group of flags of Bans, coronation and state flags are the flags of Croatian counties – the counties of Krizevci, Zagreb, Virovitica and Rijeka – which are a symbol of aristocratic administrative and political territorial communities which act through county assemblies.

In 1991 50 flags from the former Museum of the Revolution of the Peoples of Croatia were incorporated into the Collection. The symbols in the majority of these flags bear witness to the communist ideological system which was forced upon Croatia after the end of World War II.

Over the past five years (after 1990) the Collection has acquired new flags – military and political symbols of an independent and sovereign Croatia.

A part of the Collection contains streamers, which are accessories to flags proper. Their content illustrates and adds to the information provided by the flag itself.

The Collection of flags is an indispensable source for the study of Croatian political, cultural and military history. In this way it can contribute to the study of vexillology, the scholarly discipline within the framework of auxiliary historical sciences which studies flags and their symbolism.

The content and type in this Collection make it a more modest collection within the Museum. Along with original uniforms it has copies of 18^th 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 19^th 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).

A serezan uniform from the middle of the 19^th century and the uniform of the Boka Naval Society are the most significant items in the Collection. Also significant from a cultural and historical perspective are parts of uniforms of the National Guard and Croatian Home-Guard. The serezan uniform is a folk garment made from stout peasant cloth, and consists of a red cape with a collar and hood, a blue tunic, a baggy red cap, white trousers, overshoes and leggings. The serezan were armed with a rifle, two pistols and a curved dagger. The serezan served as gendarmerie in the Military Border, and were elite troops. The uniform of the Boka Naval Society is an old ceremonial suit from Boka.

In 1991 the Collection received 70 parts of uniforms from the collection of Three-Dimensional Objects of the Museum of the Revolution of the Peoples of Croatia, most of them being parts uniforms – tunics, coats, soldier’s shirts and caps from military formations from World War II (partisans, home-guard and Ustashe).

More recently the Collection had acquired officer’s uniforms of the former Yugoslav Peoples’ Army (navy and army, uniforms of those who fought in the Patriotic War and of the new Army of the Republic of Croatia.