The Liberation War Museum began under the initiative of an eight-person board of trustees as a means of preserving the memory of the 1971 Liberation War. The trustees sought donations from the general public to fund the museum and for the general public to come forward with artifacts to be displayed artifacts from the war, including personal belongings, weapons and human remains, as well as creating an archive of documents and personal histories related to the war. Over the years the museum collected more than 21,000 artifacts (as of 2016), with some as exhibits on display in the museum and many more stored in its archives. The museum describes itself as "the outcome of a citizens' effort"[2] due to the crowd-funded nature of the museum (which is independent of the Govt. of Bangladesh) and the collective contribution of the general public to the museum's collection.