Museum of history and culture of peoples of the North named after Y. M. Yaroslavsky is the first state educational and scientific institution on the territory of Yakutia.

The decision on creation of the Museum was made in March 1887, the Yakut regional statistics Committee on the initiative of A. Popov. In June 1891 in one of the shops Gostiny Dvor hosted the opening of the first exposition. The founders decided that the main objective of this Museum should be the collection and preservation of the collections of the rarest products of man and the works of nature Yakutsk region, in order for local residents and guests of the city could more thoroughly acquainted with the local culture and nature.

In 1909-1911, thanks to the initiative of the public, donated money merchants G. Nikiforov, F. Astrakhantsev and other wealthy locals, was built two-storey building. On the same floor constructed building houses a library, and a Museum. Streamlining the collection of the Museum and the exposition did politically A. Kuznetsov and E. Yaroslavsky. Before the revolution the Museum consisted of 19 thousand units of systematic artifacts.

In 1924, the Museum was named after E. Yaroslavsky. Until 1978, the Museum had the status of local history. After was created Yakutsk state United Museum of history and culture of peoples of the North named after E. Yaroslavsky, where the Museum was included as the main institution. In 2004 the Museum was added extension, bringing its exhibition area was expanded somewhat.

Major Museum collections are divided into four parts: historical, ethnographic, natural and archaeological. The Museum introduces visitors to the diversity of rocks and minerals, flora and fauna of Yakutia, talks about the culture of the Northern indigenous minorities, religious beliefs, customs, rituals and traditions. The Museum presents a unique skeletons and stuffed animals. Here you can see the skeleton of a bowhead whale and Trehdechnogo mammoth, and stuffed bighorn sheep and the Amur tiger.