Although the details were not documented, the collection was probably a number of mounted animals of local origin combined with Native Canadian artifacts.

An account of the museum's contents before 1844 said that it had over 5,000 items, including bipeds, quadrupeds, birds, fish, insects, reptiles, shells, minerals, and Native American curiosities.

[2] During the first fifty years of its existence, the museum acquired similar artifacts through the efforts of the Barnett family and their associates.

In 1859, an inventory of the museum's contents included an egg collection, ancient and modern coins, and Japanese and Chinese relics.

The show was then changed, with scout and lawman "Wild Bill" Hickok as master of ceremonies assisted by local Woodland Indians from the Tuscarora and Cayuga nations.

A giant Sequoia tree, reportedly felled on the Eel River in Humboldt County, California on February 14, 1893, was a highlight of the exposition's Forestry Building.

[1] The museum's collection was owned by the Sherman family until May 1999, when it was purchased by private collector William Jamieson of Toronto in the hope of reviving Barnett's tradition.

The Sherman family sold the museum's collection in 1999 to Canadian collector Billy Jamieson, a dealer of tribal art.

Through research and collaboration with medical experts at the Emory University School of Medicine, museum scholars identified the mummy as Pharaoh Ramesses I.