The Akmola Regional Museum of History and Local Lore is the main cultural institution in Kokshetau, with a collection of over 90,000 objects covering the natural history, archaeology, and cultural history of the Akmola Region. The building, a red-brick two-story merchant's house from 1904, is near the central square and is one of the few pre-Soviet structures left in the city.
The exhibits cover Kazakh nomadic culture (yurts, costumes, weapons, silver ornaments), the history of Russian settlement in the steppe, the Soviet era, and natural history specimens. The quality is uneven by international standards, but the ethnographic material on traditional Kazakh life is genuinely interesting and not widely accessible elsewhere. Labels are in Kazakh and Russian; English summaries are rare. Admission is cheap. Allow 1–2 hours.