The Museum has a good collection of Sanskrit and Bengali manuscripts, written on hand-made paper, palm leaf. Among the terracotta objects in the museum plaques, figures, stamped and inscribed slabs, votive seals, moulded and decorated brick representing the different phases of this art of Bengal.The Persian documents. Paintings in the museum collection range in date from 17th century. They include lacquer painted wooden manuscript covers, late Mughal miniature, water color drawings of Eid and Muharram processions of Dhaka. With a gallery of Shilpachariya Zainul Abedin's painting, the contemporary art gallery is rich with paintings, sculptures and tapestries of famous artists of Bangladesh.

Besides these, medieval arms and weapons, porcelain, metal work, specimens of famous filigree work of Dhaka, exquisite embroidered quilts, outlandish pieces of ivory works, superb wooden furniture, a rare piece of world famous Dhaka Muslin, dioramas of folk and tribal life, model of boats of Bangladesh, tribal and folk arts and crafts are displayed in the galleries. Collection of natural history specimens includes flora and fauna, fossils, rocks and minerals of Bangladesh and some impressive dioramas depicting the forest life and sundarbans milieu. The galleries of liberation war (1971), mementos of martyred intellectuals (1971) and Language Movement (1952) have added a proper dimension to Bangladesh National Museum. At present, Bangladesh National Museum has, in its possession, more than 85 thousand objects representing Hindu-Buddhist civilization of olden times, Islamic heritage of Bengal, and life, culture and society of contemporary Bangladesh.