Initially, it mainly tended to be worthy Basel citizens who brought ethnological collections back to Basel from their travels. Later on, ethnography was increasingly to become a matter for scientific research. During subsequent decades, scholars such as Fritz and Paul Sarasin, Felix Speiser and Paul Wirz contributed to the growth of the collection. It was thus that the main areas of Basel's collection developed over the generations, for example to cover Melanesia and Indonesia.
In 1892 a special commission was founded to deal with the ethnographic collection and then, in 1917, the ethnological collection acquired a dedicated museum in its own right. An independent department for ethnographic studies was founded as early as 1904 and has had its own exhibition facilities since the 1950s.
In 1944 the ethnological and ethnographical collections received the official title of «Museum für Völkerkunde und Schweizerisches Museum für Volkskunde». This name remained in existence for over fifty years - until 1996 - when the new name of «Museum der Kulturen» became known outside the museum, although it had long served in-house as the guideline for the museum. This was because the museum, having no colonial past, cultivated partner-like exchanges between cultures from the very beginning, rather than just investigated and disseminated information about «different peoples», and had for a long time been involved in intercultural dialogue. A highlight in the museum's history was the visit of the Dalai Lama in May 2001 to open the exhibition «Tibet. Buddhas, Gods, Saints». br>
Comprehensive structural renovations were a feature of the museum between 1978 and 1986. After more than 150 years in Augustinergasse, a fundamental realignment of the museum's layout is planned: in connection with the planned
new extension by Herzog & de Meuron, the new museum entrance is situated directly on Münsterplatz since 19 January 2007.
new extension