Gubernskiy museum appeared in Tobolsk in 1870 and became the first museum in Siberia. The collection of Ivan Yushkov — secretary of Regional statistical committee, became its basis. He collected everything connected with indigenous peoples, Siberian Tatars and old-identities of the Russian Tobolsk. The museum received its own building in 1889. The trustee of the Gubernskiy museum was the future Emperor Nicholas II.
In 1900 the Tobolsk Gubernskiy museum received a diploma and a medal at the World Exhibition in Paris. Now the finds of ethnographers, archaeologists and paleontologists are in the elegant building of the Gubernskiy museum. Here one also needs to admire the unique work of carving cutters — figurines carved by Tobolsk masters from the mammoth tusk or the elk’s horns. Another pearl of the museum are cheap popular prints, brought here from remote villages of the region. Nearby is the collection of an art museum with drawings and paintings of the XIX-XX centuries.
In 2007 a bronze crew with two horses appeared on the square in front of the museum — now a popular place where tourists and newlyweds are photographed.