Koningstraat and Turfmarkt The museum was founded on 13 April 1881 by the "Provincial Friesch Genootschap ter Beoefening van Friesche Geschied-, Oudheid- en Taalkunde", a society for the preservation of Frisian culture that was itself was founded in 1827 and needed a place to exhibit the various artifacts it had gathered together. In the early decades this local museum, an offshoot of the Antiquarisch Kabinet van Friesland, was focussed on typical Hindeloper goods and other Frisian curiosities that had been collected by the local preacher-writer Joost Hiddes Halbertsma. The first historical exhibition of 1877, however, which had over 1500 items on loan and attracted many visitors, led to an unexpected profit of 17,000 guilders, and the museum was able to purchase a new property on the Koningstraat, the former "Eysinga house", where the museum opened its doors in 1881.
A further important boost to the collection occurred when William III of the Netherlands bequeathed many portraits from the collection of the Stadhouderlijk Hof. In 1892 a new wing was built to house the growing collection, with a special viewing room for the paintings with a large skylight.