The Museum-Archive of Russian Culture at the Russian Center in San Francisco was established in 1948 with the aim of systematically collecting and preserving important documents related to the history of Russia and emigration. The Russian Foreign Historical Archive in Prague, founded in 1923 and focused on gathering materials from European and Far Eastern emigration, was moved to the USSR in 1945, which became an irreparable loss for the Russian emigration.

The USA became a reliable place for creating such an archive. In San Francisco, the Russian Historical Society in Prague was restored after its closure by the Nazis, and in 1939, the Russian community acquired a building for the Russian Center.

The initiator of the creation of the Museum-Archive and its first chairman was Pyotr Filaretovich Konstantinov, a member of the Russian Historical Society in America, who held this position from 1948 to 1954.

Since 1953, the Museum-Archive has been registered as a non-profit organization under the name Museum of Russian Culture.

Its collections include archival materials and documents, as well as several thousand books in Russian, including émigré publications.

The collection of periodicals contains more than a thousand titles.

In 1985, part of the periodicals and books from the Museum-Archive's collection was microfilmed as part of a joint project with the University of California, Berkeley library.

For many years, the Museum-Archive became a cultural center for the entire White military and civil emigration.