One of the oldest museums in Kazakhstan, the Semey Regional Museum of Local History was founded in 1883 by the Russian democrats Y. Michaelis, MI Dolgopolov, P. D. Lobanovsky and the great Kazakh poet Abay Kunanbayev. At the same time, A. Leontiev, A. A. Black, N. Я. Conchin V. N. Philipov, M., Igor Suvortsev, as well as the internally displaced people contributed to the foundation of the museum. Chairman of the Statistics Committee, Governor A. P. Protsenko supported the creation of the Museum and Public Library. At all times, the museum was supported by great Abai, his talented pupil, poet, philosopher Shakarim Kudaiberdiev, the great writer of the time Mukhtar Auezov. The museum was moved 8 times. It is known from the history of the museum that the museum was filled with private collections of political prisoners and local intelligentsia. At the beginning of the twentieth century, when the Semey division of the West-Siberian division of the Russian Geographical Society was established, there were 2489 exhibits in the museum. The Semey people are always proud of the scientific library with 34 thousand rare editions. Here are preserved rare dictionaries, definitions, works of scientists from Central Asia, China, Russia and calculations of the Semey Statistical Committee, atlas and geographical maps. Scientific records of the Semey division of the Western-Siberian section of the Russian Geographical Society are also preserved. Publications from the end of the XIX - the beginnings of the 20th century can be found in this library. Currently, the museum reserves more than 108 thousand items. The exposition has been exhibited in six halls of the museum: "Paleontology and geology", "Nature of the native land", "Archeology and ethnography", "City and region history", "Alash movement and Alash city", "Semey nuclear polygon". Thematic exhibitions are organized in the exhibition hall of the Museum. At the same time there is a exposition hall "Semey in the Great Patriotic War", located in the city palace of culture and there are branches of museum in the village of Karaul village of Abai district, Urdzhar district and Ayagoz city.