The Kherson Regional Museum of Local Lore is the largest collection of materials on the history and culture of the Kherson region; it is one of the most famous and invaluable museum treasures in the south of Ukraine. It originates from two museums – the Archaeological Museum at the Kherson Provincial Statistical Committee, created on the basis of the collection of antiquities of V. Hoshkevych, who was the first director (opened in 1898 and housed in a specially designated room since 1911) and the Natural History Museum of the Kherson Provincial Zemstvo, created on the basis of the Entomological Cabinet of Yu. Pachoskyi, who was the first director. The museums were merged in 1931, later separated and finally merged again in 1963; at around the same time, the institution received its current name. In 1977, the Kherson Regional Art Museum was spun off from it.

Since 1982, the main exhibition has been displayed in the former building of the Kherson District Court (built in 1893). The natural history and literature departments are housed in separate buildings (the former in a building constructed in 1906 for the Natural History Museum, the latter in the house where writer B. Lavrenov lived).

The museum has over 200,000 items in its collection. The exposition is dedicated to the history, culture and nature of the s outh of Ukraine. Among the museum's collections, the following are of high historical value: archaeological (including finds from excavations in Olbia, Berezan, Transnistria and late Scythian settlements on the Lower Dnipro), numismatic, weapons, pottery, furniture, music records, ethnographic and others. Special mention should be made of the large collection of lapidary monuments, including a unique collection of monuments from the Museum of Antiquities of Pontus Scythianus in Chisinau (the so-called Surucanu collection). The literature department presents materials dedicated to M. Kulish, D. Burliuk, A.Pushkin, L. Tolstoy, B. Lavrenov, and others.

The scientific library has about 40,000 printed publications.

Address: 9 Soborna Street, Kherson, Kherson region, Ukraine, 73000.

On October 24–26, 2022, it became known that the museum's collections had been taken to the temporarily occupied Crimea.

The robbery took place in several stages; a large number of hired workers were involved. On the first day, three Iveco trucks were loaded. The work was carried out with the participation of Russian scientists, accompanied by the Federal Security Service (FSB) and the military. Some of the exhibits were transported separately by FSB vehicles, and the robbery continued in this manner on October 26.