The museum is divided into two buildings. The main building (on Trang Tien), designed by Ernest Hébrard, draws on the Tonkinese architectural repertoire: note, for example, the console arms arranged to form the large dome. It approaches the history of Vietnam in the manner of a vast fresco, from the origins to the last Nguyen dynasty. The second building (216 Duong Tran Quang Khai) charts the history of the anti-colonial struggle, from the birth of the Vietnamese Communist Party to independence.