[1] The museum was founded in order to show Dutch overseas possessions, and the inhabitants of these foreign countries, such as Indonesia.

This included attempting to develop improved means of producing coffee beans, rotan and paraffin.

The museum came under the influence of ethnologists, who added information on the economy, manners, and customs of the inhabitants.

In the 1960s and 1970s the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs encouraged the museum to expand its scope to more social issues such as poverty and hunger.

It was richly decorated for the time, and took 11 years to build due to World War I and various labor strikes.

[1] Until the merger in 2014, the museum collection contained 175,000 objects, 155,000 photographs and 10,000 miscellaneous drawings, paintings, and documents.

The collection houses 5,500 musical instruments as well as various other theatrical objects such as masks and puppets.