The museum's collections began with kings. Gustav Vasa, who founded the modern Swedish state in the sixteenth century, assembled art at Gripsholm Castle. Subsequent monarchs expanded the holdings through purchases, diplomatic gifts, and the spoils of war during Sweden's imperial age. When the medieval Tre Kronor castle burned in 1697, some collections perished. Others survived and grew. After King Gustaf III's assassination in 1792, the royal collections passed to the government, and that same year the Royal Museum opened in Stockholm Palace - one of the first public museums anywhere in the world. The historian Bror Emil Hildebrand formally established the present institution in 1866, eventually separating the archaeological and historical materials from the fine arts that went to the Nationalmuseum.

For decades, museum staff referred to their collections simply as 'The Chaos.' Unpublished research papers earned the nickname 'the corf' - the basket miners used to haul debris from excavations. When Sigurd Curman became Custodian of Ancient Monuments in 1923, he pushed for a permanent solution. The government offered a former military barracks at Storgatan, and an architectural competition in 1930 produced the design that stands today: four block-like buildings surrounding an inner courtyard, resembling a medieval fortress. The austere facade bears sculptures added in 1959, and in the courtyard, a sculpture of Nacken - the water spirit of Scandinavian folklore - rises beside a pool. The collections finally had a home worthy of their scope.

The Viking collection spans 800 to 1050 CE, and it refuses the simple narrative of raiding barbarians. Here lie the contents of the Mastermyr chest - a craftsman's toolkit showing the sophistication of Viking metalworking. The Soderala weathervane once topped a ship or church. Objects from Birka, the UNESCO World Heritage trading settlement on Bjorko island, reveal the Vikings as merchants who connected Scandinavia to the Byzantine Empire and beyond. Foreign goods brought home from travels and raids mingle with thousands of everyday items: combs, cooking implements, clothing fasteners. The museum's touring exhibition 'We Call Them Vikings' has traveled through Europe and North America, reframing public understanding of a people defined by more than longships.

Architect Leif Blomberg designed this underground vault to resemble a mystic cult site, with limestone and diabase floors and wrought iron decor. Visitors access it through a subterranean passage from the entrance hall, and at its center stands a representation of Mimir's Well from Norse mythology. The room exists because of security - only with heightened protection could the museum display its most precious objects to the public. The golden collars date from 350 to 500 CE, crafted from melted Roman coins. Viking silver jewelry shares cases with bejeweled medieval reliquaries. A seventeenth-century Swedish law still in effect requires that all precious metal finds over one hundred years old with no owner be sent to the History Museum. The Reliquary of St. Elizabeth and the Viklau Madonna, one of Europe's best-preserved twelfth-century wooden sculptures, both came through this legal channel.

The Textile Chamber preserves fabric that rarely survives seven centuries. Most pieces served churches - vestments for priests and bishops, altar cloths, ceremonial hangings. The Skog tapestry, woven in the thirteenth century, was discovered in 1912 wrapped around a bridal crown in Skog Church. Its images remain subjects of scholarly debate. The Grodinge tapestry adds another fragment to understanding medieval Scandinavian textiles. Beyond individual treasures, the museum's database catalogs 480,000 objects, with information on 55,900 Swedish archaeological sites and 267,300 bone finds. The 1943 exhibition 'Ten Thousand Years in Sweden' established the chronological sweep that still structures the permanent galleries. History does not end; the museum's special exhibitions engage contemporary debates on climate, identity, and cultural heritage.