The public museum was opened in Barnaul in 1918 by the staff of the Altai section of the West Siberian department of the Russian Geographical Society. Its basis was made up of various collections that had been gained since 1891 by the Altai Research Society, and then by the Altai section of the Russian Geographical Society and collections of the former museum of the Altai district, that had been formed since 1823. Visitors could examine exhibits of several departments (botanical, cartographical, the war and revolution artifacts), and as well as entomological, zoological, archaeological, numismatics collections and mining production models. The next years witnessed the organization of a special section in the local administration where the officials carried out the government policy in the field of museum development. The 1920s saw the development of museums in Altai including large settlement such as Barnaul, Kamen, Biysk, Zmeinogorsk, Ulala. Financing of the museums was provided by the local budget. The museums’ work was supervised by the people’s education department officials. The Barnaul Regional Natural History Museum was the center of the local area- study movement in the Altai Territory. Museum workers were engaged in research, education and collection gathering activities. The funds of the museums were being added to through donations of various subjects by individuals, through exchange of duplicate copies with museums from other cities. The museums of Barnaul, Biysk, Kamen organized research expeditions. The Altai museums cooperated with the Society of Studying Siberia and its Productive Forces, founded in 1926 to study the region and coordinate the activity of all local area-study organizations.