The idea of creating a public museum in Kazan originated among the professors of Kazan University, which had extensive local and scientific collections. In the late 1870s, Professor N. P. Zagoskin raised the issue of establishing a city museum at meetings of the Society of Archaeology, History, and Ethnography at the Imperial Kazan University.

During the Kazan Crafts and Agricultural Exhibition of 1886, organized by the Kazan branch of the Russian Technical Society, a project for the museum proposed by A. P. Orlov, the director of the Kazan Real School, was discussed at a meeting on August 31. With the support of the provincial Zemstvo and the City Duma, as well as Society of Archaeology member Professor N. A. Osokin, the project for the City Pedagogical Museum was approved.

The All-Russian Scientific and Industrial Exhibition, held in Kazan from May 15 to September 16, 1890, brought significant income and unique exhibits to the city. The city mayor S. V. Dyachenko, in his speech at the closing of the exhibition, called for support for the creation of a city museum, suggesting that residents donate private, university, and public collections of historical antiquities to the museum.

R. V. Rizpolozhensky developed the new project and charter of the museum. In May 1891, a Commission for the Organization of the Museum was elected at a meeting of the City Duma. A subscription was held to raise funds for its creation, collecting over 5,000 rubles. Contributions were made by well-known Kazan merchants and industrialists, such as I. I. Alafuzov, P. V. Shchetinkin, and others. Thanks to a generous donation of 500,000 rubles in silver from O. S. Alexandrovna-Geyns, it was decided to place the museum in the building of the Gostiny Dvor on Voskresenskaya Street.

The foundation of the museum's collection was a 40,000-item collection of Kazan archaeologist A. F. Likhachev, transferred to the city by his brother, Vice Admiral I. F. Likhachev, in 1891.

The museum's charter was approved in 1894, and its grand opening took place on April 5, 1895. Professors, teachers, and students from Kazan University and the veterinary institute, members of the City Duma, Governor of Kazan Province P. A. Poltoratsky, Inspector of the Kazan Educational District V. A. Popov, and other officials, Archimandrite Filaret, and representatives of city educational institutions attended the opening.

The formation of the first museum collections involved scholars from Kazan University, such as A. A. Shtukenberg, N. P. Zagoskin, and others. The museum was actively replenished by Kazan collectors and patrons, including V. I. Zausailov and O. S. Alexandrovna-Geyns.

The museum occupied the first and second floors of the Gostiny Dvor and consisted of four departments: educational, historical-ethnographic, natural history, and the A. F. Likhachev Museum. A special board was created for the latter. The directors of the departments were professors from Kazan University, and the first chairman of the museum council and its director was elected city mayor S. V. Dyachenko.

The name of the museum changed several times: from 1918 it became the Provincial Museum, from 1921, the Central Museum of the TASSR, from 1944, the State Museum of the TASSR, from 1982, the State United Museum of the TASSR, and since 2001, the National Museum of the Republic of Tatarstan.