Housed in a fine riverfront mansion on Isla Teja, this museum is one of Chile's finest. It features a large, well-labeled collection from pre-Columbian times to the present, with particularly fine displays of Mapuche Indian artifacts, and fine silverware and household items from early German settlements.
On the same grounds, you'll find the sparse Museo de Arte Contemporáneo and, in a neighboring mansion, the science- and nature-oriented RA Philippi Museo de la Exploración (admission, plus Museo Histórico y Antropológico, CH$2500).