On January 12, 1865, the Museum at the Society for Natural History Research of the Yaroslavl Province was opened, founded by Professor of Natural History Andrey Stanislavovich Petrovsky. In 1901, the Society changed its name to the Natural History Society, and a significant entomological collection appeared in the museum. At the beginning of the 20th century, this museum was considered one of the largest provincial museums in Russia. In 1895, the Ancient Storage was created under the Yaroslavl Provincial Scientific Archive Commission, a historical museum dedicated to the study and preservation of the cultural and historical heritage of the Yaroslavl region. The museum's collection, which numbered 100 exhibits in 1895, grew to 12,000 items by 1914. In 1924, the museums of the city were merged into the Yaroslavl State Regional Museum. It included the historical and archaeological museum, the former Ancient Storage, the museum of ancient Russian art, the art gallery opened on December 5, 1919, a scientific library, and the natural history museum. In 1928, the museum was subordinated to the Provincial Museum Administration, became a district museum in 1929, and in 1937, a regional local history museum. In the 1930s, the museum focused on three main areas: the study of historical past, socialist construction, and nature with the natural productive forces of the region. Historical-revolutionary, anti-religious, and polytechnic departments were also created. In 1938, the Museum and Local History Work Institute organized a demonstration department of socialist construction in the Yaroslavl museum, which became a model for other museums in the country. Employees studied industrial enterprises, the history of the labor movement, village life, the productive forces of the region, and conducted expeditionary work. Since 1934, circles for students began to be created at the museum, lectures were held at enterprises, clubs, and collective farms, and in the 1940s, broadcasts on the radio. Museum workers sought to open new museums: an anti-religious one in the Church of Elijah the Prophet, a literary one in the Church of the Savior on the City, and an architectural one in the Church of Nicholas the Wonderworker. In 1959, by the decree of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR, the Yaroslavl-Rostov Historical, Architectural and Art Museum-Reserve was established on the basis of the Yaroslavl Regional and Rostov Local History Museums, the Regional Art Museum, and the Nekrasov Museum-Estate in Karabikha, located on the territory of the former Spassky Monastery. The reserve also included architectural monuments and churches, such as those of Elijah the Prophet, John the Baptist, Nicholas the Wonderworker, John Chrysostom, and later, the Nativity of Christ and Epiphany. Since 1971, after the separation of the Rostov branch and the art department into independent museums, the museum has been called the Yaroslavl Historical and Architectural Museum-Reserve.