Operating as part of the Nikola Zrinski Library in Čakovec since 1978, the Insulana local history collection holds resources relating to Međimurje, a region in northern Croatia between the Mura and Drava rivers. With its name stemming from Insula Muro-Dravan, the old Roman name for the Međimurje region, the collection assembles print publications, non-book material and other resources on Međimurje thematising the region’s geographical features, origin, historical development and all aspects of its present-day existence.
Unlike other local history collections, whose range of activity frequently varied according to administrative and territorial shifts in the regions which they target(ed) in terms of their work, the Insulana local history collection, regardless of until 1990 being administratively bound to the region of the city of Varaždin, has always focused on assembling material from the area between the Mura and Drava rivers and Croatia’s border with Slovenia. The problem for the Insulana collection on the other hand has always been the acquisition of the region’s historical resources, owing to Međimurje frequently changing rulers throughout history as a result of which valuable materials have been taken from the area and seized by the former Austro-Hungarian Empire as its national treasure.
The particularly valuable part of the collection, which holds over 3,100 book titles, are private archives containing a wide variety of resources, ranging from manuscripts to ephemera, and providing relevant and authentic information about Međimurje and the individuals who contributed the most to its culture, the quality of education in its area, to its economy, political developments and its progress in general. The collection’s private archives are protected, managed and made accessible according to professional standards applying to this, especially valuable type of library material and include unique and rare resources by or related to music educators Joža (Josip) Požgaj and Eva Požgaj, educator Petra Ferković, attorney, publicist, politician and poet Dr Ivan Novak, one of the first Croatian women practicing medicine Dr Milana Novak-Gavrančić and firefighter Antun Novak.
Among varied book and non-book material in Insulana’s private archives including approximately 10,000 items, the archive of Dr Ivan Novak particularly stands out. Its 5,000 items are grouped as manuscripts (letters, notes and other Dr Novak’s autographs), official correspondence (various types of documents), ephemera (posters, leaflets, playbills, declarations), books, newspapers and journals (which published Dr Novak’s research papers) and photographs, and also include material such as a herbarium, which Dr Novak made in secondary school, medals, paintings, Dr Novak’s law firm’s sign, etc.
A large part of Dr Novak’s archive relates directly to Međimurje, the circumstances which marked the period when it was under Hungarian occupation and the conditions in it during the First World War and its subsequent liberation and annexation to Croatia in 1919. The letters, documents, press material and photographs documenting the participants in and the very organisers of Međimurje’s return to Croatia make Dr Novak’s archive an invaluable source of data and information on the vital part of Međimurje’s history.
Resources in the collection were harvested as part of a crawl performed on 27 December 2023, resulting in 157 collected URLs, totalling 57 GB of data.