The beginnings of the Slovak National Museum (SNM) are connected with the endeavour of the Slovak nation for national emancipation and self-determination. The SNM is connected to the tradition of the Matica Slovenská Museum and the Museum of the National House in Martin, which developed the Slovak Museology Society. These endeavours reached a peak in 1908 with the opening of the first permanent exhibition in Martin in a building built from a national collection.

From the beginning the museum built up archaeological, ethnographic, historical, numismatic, art-historical, creative art and natural-science collections. In 1924 the Society of the Slovak National Geographic and History Museum founded the Slovak National Geographic and History Museum, to which in the same year was added the Agricultural Museum as a branch of the Czechoslovak Agricultural Museum in Prague. In 1940 these two museums were merged into the Slovak Museum seated in Bratislava. In 1961 the Slovak National Museum in Martin was joined with the Slovak Museum in Bratislava under the joint title of the Slovak National Museum seated in Bratislava.

Today the Slovak National Museum is the top state collection, scientific-research and cultural-education establishment in the field of museological activity in the Slovak Republic.