The National Museum of Language, located in College Park, Maryland, is a cultural institution established in 1997 to "examine the history, impact, and art of language," and remains one of only a handful of institutions designed for this purpose. The NML owns the world's only International Flag of Language, the result of a contest sponsored by the museum in 2008. The three shades of green on the flag represent past, present, and future languages. The museum is almost entirely run and staffed by volunteers.