Sabah Museum

The Sabah Museum is the state Museum of Sabah, Malaysia. It is at Bukit Istana Lama in Kota Kinabalu, the state capital. The mission of the museum is to collect, preserve, conserve and document ethnographic, archaeological, historical, numismatic, art-historical, botanical, zoological and mineralogical collections from throughout the state, and to conduct research on important and interesting aspects of Sabah's history, culture, and social and natural history.

The Sabah Museum, located in the shop houses at Gaya Street, Kota Kinabalu, was officially opened in 1965. The establishment of the Museum was to a large extent due to the efforts of the Sabah Society. In fact, the famous Woolley Collection, which formed the foundation collection of the incipient museum, belonged to Mr. G.C. Woolley, the executive officer designate of the proposed society (died in 1947).

The Sabah Museum grew and expanded rapidly while still located at Gaya Street. It was reflective of the State Government's commitment to the Sabah Museum when a much larger (43 acres), permanent and prestigious site for the purpose-built museum was chosen where the old Government House (and later the State Legislative Assembly buildings) used to be. The official opening of the Sabah Museum, located at its present site was officiated by His Majesty the Yang Di-Pertuan Agong in 1984. In 1985, the post of Curator was upgraded to the Director of Sabah Museum. Presently, the Museum comes under the State Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Environment.