Including its Planetarium and Science Gallery exhibit, the museum focuses on collecting, researching, and sharing Manitoba's human and natural heritage, culture, and environment.

[4] In 1879, the Historical and Scientific Society of Manitoba officially began to collect and preserve its heritage at some unknown location.

In the early 1890s, E. Thompson Seton wrote about the Manitoba Museum, which was reportedly housed in the basement of Winnipeg's City Hall.

So, in 1954, the Board began planning a new institution, which would reflect the values of the time, consulting extensively with the American Museum of Natural History and the Hayden Planetarium.

Not a collection of stuffed birds, antiquated firearms or dusty rocks – but a living history of man and his environment, tracing the evolution of Manitoba's resources, industry and culture, past and present, and pointing the way, through research, to the future.

[7] With H. David Hemphill as its managing director (1970–88),[8] paid curatorial positions were created and the former volunteer curators were appointed to the Museum Advisory Council.

[7] Over time, prior to the 2000s, the original two galleries would be joined by exhibits devoted to earth history and sea-trading (1973), urban life (1974), the Canadian arctic and subarctic (1976), and the Boreal forest (1980).

[9] The space features state-of-the-art lighting technology and 13-foot-high windows with views of Steinkopf Gardens and the Manitoba Centennial Centre.

[10] When the Parklands / Mixed-Woods Gallery opened in September 2003, the grand design for a museum to portray the human and natural history of all of Manitoba was complete.

Geological change is recognized by fossil signposts such as the giant trilobite, plesiosaur, and the mosasaur, who inhabited the area of what is now Manitoba nearly 80 million years ago.

[19] In the Ancient Seas exhibit, a virtual underwater observatory shows the Hudson Bay region during the Ordovician period.

[11] The Nonsuch replica was built in England in 1968 to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the HBC, and sailed 14,000 kilometres (8,700 mi) of water before reaching the Manitoba Museum in 1974.

[20] The gallery also features a timeline film, framed by the former Eaton's Place entrance, that presents the chronological history of Winnipeg.

"[22] While the company itself acquired materials for exhibition at its London headquarters, many of its North American employees also accumulated their own private collections.

On 2 May 1920, in celebration of the 250th anniversary of the granting of its Charter, the HBC contracted Francis David Wilson, a former District manager for James Bay "to collect historical relics, lore, and souvenirs of the early history of the Company" for a museum.

One-half of the collection originated in First Nations, Métis, and Inuit communities, acquired by the HBC through purchase, trade, ceremonial gift exchange, and donations from fur traders and their families.

In addition to preserving a record of the HBC's contribution to the development of British North America for posterity, the collections and their exhibition were considered to be the company's legacy to all Canadians; a “gift to the nation.

The objective of the exhibition was "to depict by means of relics, pictures, documents, models, etcetera, the history of the Hudson's Bay Company, life in the fur trade, the story of pioneer settlers and the customs, dress and industries of the Aboriginal tribes.

The artifacts held in the gallery reveal stories that includes the quest for the fabled Northwest Passage and the establishment of the HBC's trading empire.

The planetarium's live programming combine pre-recorded visual sequences of the sky and space, with commentary and question-and-answer segments from a show presenter.