A single person cannot achieve much, but many persons can achieve what an entire helpless people cannot.

In his text, Folk Textiles and Embroidery, which appeared in the book celebrating the 50th anniversary of the episcopate of J. J. Strossmayer (1900), Cepelić proposed the establishment of a „museum for the textiles of the Croatian people,” which would be the forerunner of the Croatian ethnographic museum in Zagreb. He thus became one of the prominent public figures who, following the example of other countries of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy at the turn of the century, proposed the establishment of this specialized national museum institution.

In light of this idea, which remained pivotal for the rest of his life, Cepelić donated his collection of textiles and embroidery to the Museum of Arts and Crafts, on the condition that the material would be handed over to the ethnographic museum should such an institution be established in the meantime. Cepelić wrote his will in 1914, and the Ethnographic Department of the Croatian National Museum was founded in 1919.

M. Cepelić: Item list or catalogue

Đakovo-Osijek Archdiocese – Archdiocesan Archives