The museum was founded on December 12, 1886, as a historical and archaeological institution under the Saratov Scientific Archive Commission. Its collection began with donations from individuals and organizations. By 1889, the museum already had 144 items.

Initially, the collection was housed in the building where the archive commission was located. In 1892, it was moved to the Radishchev Museum. In 1893, a new catalog was created, listing 1,500 items.

In 1930, the museum moved to the mansion of M. A. Ustinov, built in the style of Russian classicism in the 1810s.

The museum's funds contain about 400,000 items, including archaeological, ethnographic, paleontological, and entomological collections, as well as samples of manuscripts and old printed books, religious cult objects, poster graphics, numismatics, and materials on the political, economic, and cultural history of the city and region.

The museum's collections are regularly supplemented with unique exhibits. For example, in June 2015, the museum received the diaries of N. I. Vavilov, and in December 2014, items related to the architect S. A. Kallistратov.