The mission of the Bennington Museum is to collect, preserve, and display for educational purposes and enjoyment objects that illustrate the social, cultural, and historical development of New England, particularly of Vermont and the Bennington region including adjacent New York State.

The Bennington Museum began as the Bennington Historical Society. It was created in 1875, focused on memorializing the pivotal 1777 Revolutionary battle fought near the town. Following the opening of the Bennington Battle Monument in 1891, the Historical Society emphasized preserving the colorful past of southern Vermont and the surrounding region. In 1924, it acquired the imposing stone structure which had originally served as the St. Francis De Sales Roman Catholic Church. The Society renovated the building and opened it as a museum in 1928. To better describe its prominent role in the region, in 1954 the Bennington Historical Society changed its name to the Bennington Museum.

Significant early acquisitions included paintings and sculpture by Vermont artists, children's toys, maps, books, and military artifacts. In time the museum acquired notable portraits of early settlers by Ammi Phillips; a remarkable townscape by Ralph Earl; newspapers printed in Bennington by one of America's leading abolitionists, William Lloyd Garrison; a Windsor writing-arm chair owned by Ira Allen, a founder of Vermont and author of the State's constitution; and the world's largest collection of Bennington pottery.