"It belongs to the Estonian people, to everyone, and more strictly speaking remains the property of the Estonian Students' Society," he wrote.

After receiving the news, Estonian refugee Karl Aun, who had been in charge of safely hiding the flag at his family's Läänemardi Farm 50 years prior, wrote from Toronto in January 1992, urging not to rush with publicly displaying the flag.

With the public display of their colors still very much unsanctioned in Tartu, EÜS accepted the invitation of an alumni to visit him in Otepää that spring and organized for the consecration of their flag there.

That year, the fraternity also formally handed its historical flag over to the Estonian National Museum (ERM) for safekeeping, stipulating that it was only to be issued upon the fraternity president's written request each time.

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While the colors of blue, black and white had at the time already started gaining traction as a symbol for Estonians, this incident cemented the blue, black and white flag itself as an emblem as well.

In 1890, another attempt had been made to establish EÜS as a korporatsioon, this time under the name Fraternitas Viliensis and with the same colors and flag.

On December 26, 1991, four months after Estonia officially regained its independence, the reinforced box containing the original blue, black and white flag was dug out from the footing of a chimney at a rural Jõgeva County farm as Estonian Television cameras filmed. More than a century old, the flag, kept safe through decades of occupation at risk of death, had finally been unearthed.

At the time, despite Tartu being under Imperial Russian rule, power over the student body at the University of Tartu was de facto in the hands of its Baltic-German elite – and more specifically, the umbrella organization of Baltic-German fraternities known as the Chargiertenconvent (Ch!C!). No fraternity without Ch!C! approval was permitted to even display their signature colors – as tricolor flags, student caps or ribbons – in public. German was also still the language used by the university and the wider elite.

The group decided to meet once a week, to read the national epic, first published in full just eight years prior, as well as learn more about the Estonian language and culture together. These get-togethers would later come to be known as the "Kalevipoeg Evenings."

It was only taken out for very special occasions and shown to their pledges and most trusted guests, Kõpp said, describing the sacred air already surrounding the flag.

The Manifesto continued to spread the next day, and as the Estonian provisional government appointed by the Salvation Committee (Päästekomitee) began issuing orders on February 24, the Estonian tricolor made an appearance in Tallinn, where it was raised on top of the Bank of Estonia building. A day later, it would be raised atop the prominent Tall Hermann Tower for the first time as well, although only to half mast thanks to a broken pulley system.

Despite the status of the blue, black and white flag as Estonia's both national and state flag, EÜS retained full control over whether, when and where the original could be removed from storage and put on display.

Nonetheless, the Riigikogu, the parliament of Estonia, passed on these alternative options, and in summer 1922 adopted the State Flag Act, establishing the "sky blue (cornflower blue)-black-white" flag as Estonia's national flag.

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Tartu in the second half of the 19th century was the academic and cultural hub of the Estonian national awakening (ärkamisaeg) and its conscious development of an independent Estonian identity. Organizations were founded dedicated to promoting and developing the language and culture, and the first Estonian song festival was held in town in 1869; Jannsen, one of the men to attend those first Kalevipoeg Evenings the next spring, was among the song festival's chief organizers.

Aleksander Aun died 11 years later, just months before Karl Aun, cut off from occupied Estonia and unaware of his death, expressed concern in his 1955 letter that if anything were to happen to his father, there may not be anyone left in Estonia who knew the exact whereabouts of the flag.

Each time, it would be put up to a vote at a fraternity meeting and had to be approved by the fraternity president as well. Each time, the flag would be required to be escorted by an elected six-member EÜS color guard and accompanied by the fraternity president. The meeting also had the right, exercised on at least one occasion, to say no.

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This time, they even received Ch!C! approval, however, their founding was nonetheless vetoed by the Riga Educational District chief. EÜS continued operating de jure as a student society, but retained rights to Fraternitas Viliensis' crest and colors.

On the morning of June 3, a canary yellow carriage drawn by eight horses set out from Tartu for Otepää, carrying all two dozen then-members of EÜS and, initially hidden away, their new flag.

This journey has been recreated by the fraternity on June 4 several times in recent decades, in commemoration of that first covert trip.

After being immersed in the nearby Lake Pühajärv, the flag was consecrated in the parsonage hall at Otepää St. Mary's Lutheran Church on the night of June 4, 1884.

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This approval never came, and, in spring 1882, frustrated with the obstruction, then-president Aleksander Mõttus wore his unsanctioned blue, black and white fraternity cap while publicly going around Tartu by horse and carriage. Baltic-German fraternity members quickly caught wind of the infraction, stopped the carriage and snatched off his cap, later defiling it at a Baltic-German fraternity house.

According to more detailed descriptions, Emilie Beermann, whose brother Christoph Wilhelm was EÜS' pledgemaster (vanamees) at the time, bought the necessary silk fabric from a shop in Põltsamaa and sewed the flag in her room. The massive flag, measuring 375 by 174 centimeters – or nearly 12 feet by 6 feet – was completed in spring 1884 and delivered to Tartu.

In September 2016, the 132-year-old flag made one last planned journey through Tartu. Carried as required by a six-member color guard and the fraternity president, it was delivered across town to the yet-unopened new Estonian National Museum.

At a meeting in fall 1904, EÜS debated at length one more time before deciding once and for all to permanently shelve the idea of reorganizing as a korporatsioon.

Its longest and most well-known hiding place was in the footing of a chimney at the Aun family's Läänemardi Farm. Prior to that, however, it had first been buried under a shed at another EÜS member's farm in Viljandi, but was later dug back up and even briefly returned to Tartu before Aun transported it to his own family's farm in the Jõgeva County countryside in the summer of 1942.

The description was straightforward, but Aleksander Mohrfeldt, the member who recorded the minutes of that meeting, later noted how significant the decision over the color combination had actually been. The process, he said, had involved significant discussion regarding both practical and aesthetic requirements.

Two years later, still with no official flag yet chosen, the Estonian government picked out three of the many flag designs it had been submitted, two of which were Nordic cross-style flags and the third of which was a tricolor, but in the historical green, purple and white colors of the Governorate of Estonia rather than the already familiar blue, black and white.

Following the February Revolution, the first stage of the Russian Revolution of 1917, tens of thousands of Estonians staged a massive demonstration in Petrograd (St. Petersburg) that spring, demanding the establishment of a unified, autonomous Governorate of Estonia; blue, black and white flags feature prominently in historical photos of the event.

While fabled to bear even beer stains – alleged evidence of its more humble original use as a fraternity flag – wear and tear to the flag that was documented at the time included a red lipstick stain as well as amateur efforts to repair the silk flag with mismatching cotton thread.

Since then, other than occasional checkups by experts to monitor how it's doing, the very first Estonian flag has remained unfurled on permanent display, where even regular museum visitors can now get a very up-close look at it.

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In summer 1989, Aun was able to travel to Estonia and visit his birthplace for the first time in 45 years. At the time, the flag remained put; however, Aun and his family farm were both the subject of increasingly suspicious attention, sparking concerns over the historical flag's safety and prompting him to start arranging for it to be unearthed.

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That February 24, on Estonian Independence Day, the original blue, black and white flag was returned to the fraternity EÜS.

Returning to Tartu, the fraternity's newly consecrated blue, black and white flag was immediately carefully hidden at their fraternity house.

In summer 1940, all academic organizations in Estonia were ordered to shut down at the start of half a century of Soviet, Nazi German and once again Soviet occupation. Karl Aun, the last pre-occupation president of the fraternity, swapped out the original EÜS flag being held by ERM for a copy, and the original flag was transported out of town into hiding.

Now securely repacked, Aun buried the flag in its box in a temporary location. In spring 1944, however, one of the two people entrusted with its location had been arrested and sent to a German prison camp, prompting him to dig it back up and bury it again it in a safer spot, only to rebury it again even deeper sometime later.

Finally ending up wanted himself by occupying authorities, the fraternity president was forced into hiding, but he and his father had already agreed the flag in its box would be buried in the footing of an unfinished chimney at their farmhouse. Thus it was his father who actually buried the historical Estonian flag in its final hiding place in the fall of 1944, with instructions to entrust the secret to another trusted individual if he should ever feel that his life was in danger.

Whether, when and for what reason it may disappear from there someday remains entirely up to EÜS, as the succinct contract between them and the museum from 30 years ago states that the fraternity reserves the right to take it back at any time.

On April 7, 1870, five Estonian university students and three prominent Estonian Tartu residents got together for the first time to read the national epic "Kalevipoeg" together.

A year later, in fall 1905, the original EÜS flag made its true public debut at a demonstration of Estonian organizations in Tartu, where some members were even injured in an attack by opposing students.

Nonetheless, neither the "Provisional Order of Government for the Republic of Estonia" adopted by the Constituent Assembly in 1919 nor the Constitution of the Republic of Estonia adopted in 1920 contained any references to a state flag.

While Estonia as a state wouldn't declare independence for several decades yet, the origins of the blue, black and white flag were nonetheless significantly intertwined with Estonia's national awakening and the push for Estonian self-determination starting in the second half of the 19th century.

The same tricolor flags were also present in photos from the first congress of Estonian national troops serving in the Russian Army, which was held that June.

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Two years later, Estonia regained its independence; a few months after, the fortified box was dug up and the historical blue, black and white flag was free again for the first time since 1940.

In the second half of the 1990s, a massive metal case, colloquially referred to by some as the "sarcophagus," was commissioned for the storage of the flag. For the next two decades, the flag would spend most of its time delicately rolled up in this case at the old Estonian National Museum (ERM) building at Veski 32, making only a rare handful of appearances.

At more than 100 years old and after having spent the past half a century buried underground, the historic flag underwent months of conservation work in the hands of experts in Tallinn, including being carefully washed and dried in a swimming pool especially drained for the occasion.

Twelve years later, on June 4, 1934, the 50th anniversary of the consecration of EÜS' original flag – the forerunner to Estonia's national flag – was widely celebrated across the country.

Once there, the massive silk flag was aired out and even repaired in a few spots before being stashed in a washbowl, where it remained tucked between bedsheets and table linens until next summer, Aun admitted in a letter to friends sent from Chicago in 1955.

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University of Tartu rector and Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church (EELK) bishop Johan Kõpp, who joined EÜS in 1896, later recalled that the flag was still kept in a filing cabinet, assigned to the fraternity secretary's care.

"The colors were to remind us of who we are, where we are heading and striving," Mohrfeldt continued, describing a deeper significance foreshadowing their future role. "Others in the future must know the same: we are Estonians, we want to remain Estonians; we have the right and duty to do so. We want to remain among the ranks of our people in good times and bad; we want to apply our knowledge and strength to work in the interests of our people – to rise from the dirt to the top, escape from darkness into the light."

Those aware of its history may already know that the Estonian flag was originally a fraternity flag – and even that the date celebrated as Flag Day today marks the anniversary of its consecration as the flag of the Estonian Students' Society (EÜS).

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When Estonia's Declaration of Independence – formally the Manifesto to the Peoples of Estonia – was first publicly proclaimed in Pärnu on February 23, 1918, it was accompanied by blue, black and white flags.

The organization dropped its bid for Ch!C! recognition, and the Estonian Students' Society (Eesti Üliõpilaste Selts, EÜS) was registered as a society by the university in 1883.

Joining the students were several figures already active in Estonia's national awakening, including prominent newspaper editor Johann Voldemar Jannsen, future elite high school founder Hugo Treffner and notable folklorist and linguist Jakob Hurt.

After a few years, the group made things more official, establishing formal membership, electing officers and recruiting new members. Years later, in 1881, members of the society decided to move forward with formally founding the first ethnic Estonian fraternity (korporatsioon), and adopted their signature colors at the founding meeting that fall.

As a result of this violent debut, Mõttus was kicked out of the University of Tartu and banished from the city for a year, but the colors blue, black and white were also reinforced as a budding symbol of Estonian resistance.

The historical blue, black and white EÜS and Estonian flag can be viewed at the Estonian National Museum (ERM) in Tartu during regular opening hours.

That fall, the provisional government proposed adopting the cornflower blue, black and white tricolor as Estonia's provisional national flag, and the flag made a reappearance on Tall Hermann Tower that December.

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Sometime over the winter to follow, the subject of a flag for EÜS came up at the home of Karl August and Paula Hermann, and the latter decided to arrange for a blue, black and white flag to be made for them. Involved in the effort by various accounts were fraternity members' wives and sisters.

"The name of the fraternity will remain Vironia," read the German-language minutes of the September 29, 1881 meeting. "The colors are provisionally set as blue, black, white."

"Let us here recognize that Estonia's humiliation has come to an end," then-EÜS president Peeter Hellat said, addressing his fraternity brothers that day. "Let us fight joyfully and as one in working to uplift Estonia."

He recalled that the colors were supposed to reflect the character and ideals of the Estonian people, derive from the colors found in Estonian folk dress, mirror the colors found in local nature as well as be harmonious.

This Tuesday, June 4, the blue, black and white flag celebrates its 140th birthday. The history of what would become the Estonian flag was tumultuous from the start, but the original flag, kept safely hidden away for evolving reasons over nearly a century and a half, is still around – and since 2016 can be seen up close at the Estonian National Museum (ERM) in Tartu.

As the steeple of the Otepää church came into view a few kilometers out from their destination, they threw caution to the wind and unfurled the flag – and thus the first ever blue, black and white flag made its open-air debut, whipping in the wind on its flagpole in the carriage.

Next summer it was aired out again, however as the political situation continued to worsen, he decided to rebury the flag, this time wrapping it up and packing it tightly into a special wooden box inside a pretreated iron box that he had made for it in Tallinn. He returned from the Estonian capital by train, with a box resembling a radio in his bag secretly actually carrying the original blue, black and white flag.