The museum was founded in 1983 in honor of the 240th anniversary of Orenburg. It includes nine permanent exhibitions that highlight the history of the city from ancient times. Among the themes of the exhibitions are the founding of the city on the eastern border of Russia, the peasant war led by Emelyan Pugachev, life in Orenburg in the first half of the 19th century, and the visit of A.S. Pushkin. The architecture of the city, ethnography, regional governance, and notable figures of Russia such as M. Karamzin, G. Derzhavin, and I. Krylov, who were connected to Orenburg, are also presented. The exhibitions also tell about the explorers of the region, such as I. Lepekhin, P. Pallas, P. Rychkov, E. Eversmann, and A. Humboldt.