The Ostrogozhsk Historical and Art Museum named after I.N. Kramskoy, one of the oldest provincial art museums in Russia, was founded in 1907 thanks to the initiative of local residents. It is located in the center of a small town on the banks of the poetically named river Tikhaya Sosna.

The town of Ostrogozhsk in the Voronezh region was founded in 1652 as a military fortress on the Belgorod defensive line to protect against raids by Crimean and Nogai Tatars. The fortress was built by Russian servicemen and Ukrainian settlers (Cherkasy) under the guidance of the voivode F.Yu. Arsenyev.

The museum began its history in 1907 when an art gallery named after I.N. Kramskoy was established at the public library. The townspeople wanted to commemorate their fellow countryman, the outstanding Russian painter. The opening of the gallery was timed to the 70th anniversary of his birth and the 20th anniversary of his death.

The idea of creating the gallery belonged to local historian and librarian Gleb Nikolayevich Yakovlev. The high authority of Kramskoy as an artist, educator, critic, and public figure attracted his students and like-minded individuals, the Academy of Arts, private individuals, and public organizations to the project. Kramskoy's children, especially his daughter Sofia Ivanovna Kramskaya-Yunker, played a special role in the creation of the gallery.

In 1910, a second floor was added to the building of the fire station, which had existed since 1880, for the gallery. The project was designed by the artist's eldest son, architect N.I. Kramskoy. On September 25, 1910, the gallery opened to visitors in the new building.

All participants in forming the gallery's collection worked voluntarily. Thus, the art gallery named after Kramskoy in Ostrogozhsk became the result of the efforts of the wider public, a true people's museum that gained recognition in Russia and abroad.

Since its founding, a local history department has existed at the gallery, the basis of which was the collection of G.N. Yakovlev, which included mineralogical, paleontological, numismatic, and other materials. The formation of the art collection was contributed to by natives of the Voronezh province: Kramskoy's friend M.L. Shcherbatov and the founder of the Voronezh Drawing School L.G. Solovyov, who was born in Ostrogozhsk.

In the 1920s, the museum's funds were replenished with valuable printed and manuscript books from the 17th-19th centuries, albums of engravings, and numismatic collections.

During the war, the museum ceased to exist. In Ostrogozhsk, icons on wood painted by Kramskoy, engravings, paintings, graphics, and unique exhibits from the local history department were lost. At the beginning of the war, some works were sent to Voronezh for evacuation.

The return of the evacuated valuables was delayed after the war. Only in 1957, after the museum building was restored, did the paintings return to Ostrogozhsk.

Today, the museum combines two main profiles: local history and art. The permanent exhibition is housed in 11 halls, and visitors can climb the fire tower, from where there is a view of the floodplain of the Tikhaya Sosna River and the historical center of the town with architectural monuments from the 19th century.