POSTAGE STAMP DAY '50 YEARS OF THE PTT MUSEUM'

The stamp has been issued in a 20-stamp sheet, and the Croatian Post has also issued the First Day Cover (FDC) and postcard. The Museum of Post and Telecommunications was founded on April 9, 1953, following long-term attempts of the cultural public to collect and save the rich post and telecommunication heritage of Croatia. The interest into the research of postal services history, with special reference to Croatia, was raised as early as the second half of the 19th century. The specialized professional post-oriented schools had a subject introduced: “The history of the development of postal and telegraph services”, and some professional literature, written by Croatian authors, was issued covering the areas of postal services. Written instructions directed at the collection of post&telecommunication material were published in 1916 in the official bulletin of the royal Hungarian postal and telegraph orders. But these instructions referred to the collection of the postal&telecommunication material for the already founded postal museums of Austria-Hungary within which Croatia was situated at that time. The first published proposal that refers to the necessity of founding a postal museum in Croatia was sent to the country’s Directorate of the Post in 1942. According to the preserved sources, the Directorate of the Post, Telegraph and Telephone undertook the procedure for the founding of the museum. What followed was mainly the collecting of primarily philatelic material that would be “given into custody to the postal, telegraphic and telephone museum” - as recorded in the official news of that time. The collected material was lost in the winds of the Second World War and everything had to start from scratch in 1953. In the course of the recent 50 years, as the result of devoted activities of some ten Museum employees, the material of the uniquely rich Museum holdings has been collected, categorized according to the basic activities within three departments: the Post Department, Telecommunications Department, Philatelic Department, as well as the collections Archives, Photograph Library, Map and Gallery collection, Homeland War Collection and a rich Library with some 15,000 volumes. The Museum holdings that is placed in the Post Department contains documents that prove the development of postal services in the Croatian region, starting in the 1st century A.D., when the Romans organized the country’s traffic service, the well known cursus publicus, whose task it was to speedily transfer official correspondence and organize transport of officials. The medieval couriers in the service of kings, feudal lords, church dignitaries, cities or universities, carried written correspondence, and in 1529 the first transfer of post was organized in Croatia, by establishing postal courier service on the relation between Zagreb and Vienna. The Telecommunication Department contains material that presents the development of telecommunications in Croatia, from building up the first telegraph line in 1850, the first telephone connection in 1881, leading up to the telecommunication services of the present time. The Philatelic Department with its specific material stores documentary evidence of the striving of Croatia for regaining independence. The Department keeps, among others, also the first Croatian postage stamps from the year 1918, when, after the break-up of Austria-Hungary, Croatia became temporarily independent and printed its first postage stamps; the next time Croatian postage stamps were printed was in the period between 1941 and 1945. Finally, Croatian postage stamps started being printed in 1991, when Croatia became an independent country. The Department keeps all the Croatian postage stamps along with the documentation accompanying each individual issue, and together with these it stores postage stamps of member countries of the UPU. The entire holdings of this Museum were awarded the status of a monument of culture in terms of Article 2 of the Act on Protection of Monuments of Culture of the Republic of Croatia, on account of the decree issued by the Regional Institute for the Protection of Monuments of Culture in Zagreb on February 27, 1991. Along with the systematic collection of material, in the course of the 50 years of the activity of the Museum the chief emphasis was put on the professional research of the history of post, telecommunications and philately. The research and scientific findings have been published in numerous articles, treatises, studies, proceedings, and books. The results of the researches are also numerous museum exhibitions organized on the Museum premises, in post halls and other venues all over Croatia, and abroad. The Museum of Post and Telecommunications, with its headquarters in Zagreb, in Jurišićeva str.13, has been named differently in the course of its 50-year long existence: Postal-Philatelic Museum, PTT museum, HPT museum, HT museum. It is the only specialized cultural and professional institution in Croatia housing material on the history of post and telecommunications that can present the historical development and significance of organized communication through the historical development of mankind. The third millennium, with one of its fundamental characteristics - communication among the people, offers exceptional opportunities to this particular Museum, as it is, on account of its holdings, a veritable museum of communications. Kata Šutalo