Veliky Ustyug is considered to be the Museum under the open sky, because the largest number of monasteries, temples, civic buildings, which are valuable architectural monuments are the responsibility of the Veliky Ustyug Museum. The area of the Museum grounds is 7 hectares, and the area – 4471 sq. m.

It is believed that the year of Foundation of the Museum is 1910. It is in this time in Mihaylovo the Archangel monastery hosted the opening of the Church of the archive – the first Museum in the city. Almost all the work on the opening of the Museum of ancient antiquities held a Committee under the leadership of priest Theological K. A., who was the caretaker Velikoustyuzhskogo theological College, the Vice-Chairman was made by the high school teacher - Shlyapin V. P..

In archives did the Church books, ancient manuscripts, domestic and ecclesiastical monuments that carry historical significance. At the time of its existence were transferred to the antiquities of the St. John the Baptist monastery, Dormition Cathedral, Sasasegawa and other churches.

By early 1918 the Museum's collection consisted of more than six hundred different kinds of items including silverware, icons, printed books, crosses, and wooden sculptures. The staff Committee has not carried out the painstaking work not only in the collection of exhibits, but also in their storage, and also conducted research on the description of the items, and developed numerous articles for magazines.

November 8, 1918, with the exhibition of paintings of the artist Borisov A. A. opened in Veliky Ustyug Museum of the local culture. The basis for the new Museum Fund are the most valuable collections of the archive given in the winter of 1918.

For an incredibly short time was established securities Fund, which also determined the profile of the Museum. In addition to those collections that were transferred from the archives, a considerable number of exhibits were transferred to the Museum from the requisition of the Bureau and the Commission for the confiscation of Church relics and values. Were awarded to: women's jewelry, silver, porcelain and paintings of the Moscow state Fund. In addition, the Museum received a personal collection of numismatics, paleontology, presented in the form of stone age items and collected by a doctor Linowski. In 1929, the Museum acquired 963 books from Gribanovskiy factory libraries. Since the beginning of 1924 replenishment of funds was carried out by passing the Museum of cultural property of churches and monasteries that were subject to closure. In 1926 Trinity Cathedral of the Trinity-Gleden monastery, and its iconostasis, sculptures, icons and bells were also transferred to Veliky Ustyug Museum. During 1927 and 1929, the Museum acquired the crosses, icons, the shroud and the Cathedral library, which numbered 3345 books.

As time went on, and although the names of the Veliky Ustyug Museum changed, immovable and constant remained of his task, which gradually brings to life the people, truly dedicated, their names: M. P. Lukin, N. M. Davydov, L. F. Kunitsyn, E. G. Kukanova and many others. The most important activities of the Museum: scientific processing and storage of collections, restoration of architectural monuments, scientific, educational, exhibition and research work.

In 1988 the famous Veliky Ustyug Museum received the status of Museum-reserve. Numerous stock the Museum's collections comprise more than 90 thousand of different kind of items, and some are just unique. In the halls of the Museum each year passes more than ten new exhibitions, as well as constantly updated previous exposure. The Museum's object of steel and architectural monuments of the 17th and 18th centuries with preserved monumental painting and iconostasis.

Today in the Museum there were many new forms of work. You can see the unique collection of Christmas decorations and Christmas published "a Nativity pageant", which is in the form of a game tells the children about the celebration of Christmas, conducting training courses in carving and various master classes.