Museums in Hungary have a longer history than 200 years. The Hungarian National Museum, which was founded in 1802, is the third museum in the world after the British Museum in London and the Louvre in Paris. The foundation of the National Museum also inspired the foundation of the county museums. Thus, chronologically the first county museum, The Xantus János Museum was founded in Győr in 1859 which was followed by Liszt Ferenc Museum in Sopron in 1867, and one year later the institution bearing the name of Ferenc Erkel was also founded in Gyula. Only some months later, on December 1st 1868 The Jósa András Museum was established in Nyíregyháza. The institution in Nyíregyháza, which has a longer history than one and a half century, was originally founded in Nagykálló, which was the former capital of Szabolcs County.
The founder of the museum was Dr. András Jósa (1834-1918), a physician and archaeologist. In 1876 Nyíregyháza became the new centre of the county, and as a result of this decision, by 1892 the new County Hall was also built which also housed the collection of the Szabolcs County Museum. The director of the institution was András Jósa until his death. The collection of the museum was transferred in Building B (Egyház street) of the County House in 1926, and later in 1974 it was moved to its present place, under 21 Benczúr Square, Nyíregyháza, into a corner building which was built in 1925 and designed by Kálmán Maróthy in Neo-Classicist style with columns on its facade. The archaeological collection of European importance was founded by Dr. András Jósa, the ethnographical collection was established by his successor: Lajos Kiss. The historical collection, the arts and craft collection, the numismatics collection, the literary history collection have increased both quantitatively and qualitatively since the 1950s. In the present the museum operates as a town museum with regional (county) influence and it is one of the most significant cultural centres both of the town and the county Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg awaiting its visitors with eight permanent and tree temporal exhibitions weekly from Tuesdays to Sundays.
The county range municipal Jósa András Museum celebrated of it’s estabilishment 150th anniversary in 2018. This year there were many outstanding and worthy programs. The museum was one of the five spot in the country which hosted the ancient Seuso Treasures in spring. In the Night of the Museums in summer of 2018 was opened the „Munkácsy 50” fine arts exhibition there were thousands of visitors. The Jósa András Museum won the „Museum of the Year” prize in 2019 which was given in the Hungarian National Museum in Budapest.