Altai State Museum of Local Lore is one of the oldest museums in Siberia. Founded in 1823 on the initiative of the head of the district of the Kolyvano-Voskresensk factories and the Tomsk civil governor. The first museum exposition presented models of mining machines and mechanisms, archaeological, ethnographic, zoological collections, and a mineralogical study.

K. Ledebour, professor at the University of Dorpat, after visiting Barnaul in 1826, described the museum exposition, noting the presence of items "of everyday life of various Siberian peoples, such as weapons, utensils, costumes and equipment of shamans." The section of the catalog “Ethnographic part of the Barnaul cabinet”, compiled in 1836, included about 100 household and cultural items of the indigenous population of Siberia, China and North America.