It is sited on 17 hectares (42 acres) of land at Bukit Istana Lama in Kota Kinabalu, the state capital.

[1] George Cathcart Woolley collection of photographs, diaries and other artefacts, bequeathed to the State Government of Sabah, formed the nucleus of the museum.

[1] The museum administration then came under the State Ministry of Community Services and within the same year in 1981 under the initiative of former Sabah Chief Minister Harris Salleh, a total of M$31.2 million was gathered for the construction of a new museum building with the construction started on 1 June.

[4] The following year, the museum administration came under the State Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports where it finally moved into its present location on 11 April 1984.

[5] The mission of the museum is to collect, preserve, conserve and document ethnographic, archaeological, historical, numismatic, art-historical, botanical, zoological and mineralogical collections from throughout the state, and to conduct research on important and interesting aspects of Sabah's history, culture, and social and natural history.