Museum Volkenkunde manages collections of world renown, brought together by a series of illustrious collectors.

The collection history is closely connected with that of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. King William I (1772-1843) dispatched scholars to overseas regions to collect materials and information for Dutch museums. In 1816, the Royal Cabinet of Chinese Rarities was created. In 1821, this engendered the Royal Cabinet of Rarities in The Hague. Curiosities of every manner were added to the Cabinet over the course of the years, but the ethnographic collection remained the most important, especially once the Japanese collections of J. Cock Blomhoff and J.R. van Overmeer Fisscher were purchased in 1826 and 1832 and when that of P.F. Siebold in 1837. The ethnographic collections formed the basis for the Ethnographic Museum in Leiden (1837), later  to become the National Museum of Ethnology.

In the second half of the nineteenth century, the collections were expanded greatly. In the first decade of the twentieth century, the collection pertaining to Indonesia increased substantially. The museum also managed to acquire valuable collections from the South Pacific, Africa (including Benin bronzes), America (including a special collection of Peruvian pottery), from Tibet and from Siberia. The most important acquisition in this period, however, was the transfer of those objects from the National Museum of Antiquities, that fell outside of the period of classical antiquity. The collection of antiquities from America found its way to the museum as well. After World War II, the collections from New Guinea, Greenland and other places were acquired.
The National Museum of Ethnology became a museum of an international calibre, with famous, well-documented collections.