Zhytomyr Regional Museum of Local Lore - one of the oldest museums in Ukraine, was founded in 1865 at the city public library, on the basis of a collection of minerals and rocks collected by the Volyn Governor M. Chertkov. After the revolution and the civil war of 1917-21, the museum was replenished with some materials from the Volyn diocesan ancient repository, nationalized private collections. In 1954, the collections of the Berdychiv Museum of Local Lore were transferred to the Zhytomyr Museum.

Currently, the museum funds include 150,000 exhibits of history and culture, the main exhibition area is occupied by the art department of the museum, with a collection of works by Italian, Dutch, French, Polish and Russian masters of the 16th-20th centuries. The museum has one of the best natural history collections in the country. Archaeological materials from excavations on the territory of the Zhytomyr region of sites of the early and late Paleolithic are stored here. The museum is housed in a 19th-century mansion built for the head of the Zhytomyr Catholic diocese, which is popularly called the Bishop's House.