6 August 1932. - Opening of the Regional Museum in Chojnice with a permanent exhibition in the house of W.J. Schreiber at the corner of Market Square and Gdańska Street (today T. Kościuszki Street) under the patronage of the Branch of the Polish Landscape Society and under the management of Julian Rydzkowski.
1939 – 1945 – During the war the museum collections were mostly destroyed.
1960 – Re-activation of the Regional Museum with its seat in the Town Hall under the care of the Municipal National Council.
May 1962. – The Brama Człuchowska on the city walls was adapted for museum functions.
1966 – The running of the museum was taken over by the District Office in Chojnice.
1975 – The Chojnice museum is subordinated to the Bydgoszcz Voivode.
1977 – The seat of the museum is enlarged by the Crow Tower and in the following years by other towers: Shoemaker's House, Shoemaker's Tower, Crow's Foot Tower, House on the Walls, and the branches: the Regional Building Branch in Silno and the Albin Makowski Branch.
1984 – Opening of the Gallery of Contemporary Polish Art in Kurza Stopa.
1984 – Adoption of new statutes and change of name to the Historical and Ethnographic Museum in Chojnice.
1999 – The Museum, as a self-governing cultural institution, accepted the supervision of the Chojnice County together with its statute.
July 2001 – Opening of a local archaeological and natural history exhibition Stone Circles in Odry.
2011 – The museum is entered in the National Register of Museums.
2012 – In the year of its 80th anniversary, the Historical and Ethnographic Museum in Chojnice officially took the name of its Founder, Julian Rydzkowski.