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The Museum was created in 1884. The Second World War and, in particular, the period after the war marked a period when the Museum was in a state of darkness and its official opening was postponed. On 2 October 1970, to celebrate the 100th anniversary at the time from the referendum process for the creation of the capital city of Rome, the museum was located on the left side of the Vittoriano, the monument dedicated to Victor Emmanuel II.
Between 2000 and 2001, following the general project to restore the Vittoriano promoted by the Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi (1920-2016), Giuseppe Talamo (1925-2010), President of the Istituto per la Storia del Risorgimento italiano, established a new direction for the museum. This line included a clear division between the Fori Imperiali Wing and the "ambienti dello stilobate": one of these rooms hosted temporary exhibitions, most of them with an artistic theme, while the other hosted the museum's permanent exhibition. It contains documents, paintings, sculptures, weapons and curiosities from the second half of the 18th century to the First World War. Very interesting are the memories from the Spielberg prison and the Fratelli Bandiera. The collections concerning the Repubblica Romana of 1849, Mazzini and Garibaldi, whose letters to his wife Anita, his embroidered velvet cap, the trousers worn during the landing at Marsala and the boot with the bullet hole that wounded him in Aspromonte are particularly rich. Among the curiosities is the Enrico Serra Collection, composed of 3,383 toy soldiers depicting the uniforms, arms and ranks of the Italian army as it was in 1866. In the room dedicated to the Great War, there is the cannon carriage where the remains of the Unknown Soldier were carried. As well as considerable photographic documentation on life in the trenches, it is possible to view films from the Istituto Luce historical archives.