Among its notable co-founders were philanthropists count Feliks Sobański, Józef Zamoyski, Karol Dittrich and Hipolit Wawelberg, the Polish-Jewish banker.
It contained archives of the history of Polish industry, agriculture and crafts.
[2] It ran temporary exhibitions and opened permanently to the public in 1905 but was destroyed in 1939 during World War II.
It housed a physics laboratory run by Józef Boguski where the future double Nobel laureate, Marie Curie, began her scientific career in 1890–91.
[3] After World War II, the work of the Museum was divided among three other institutions: