Predecessors of the National Technical Museum can be seen in collecting activities of the Professional Engineering School (established in 1717), Prague Technical University (1806) and Czech Industrial Museum (1873). Some of their collections are now in the Museum. The National Technical Museum itself was established in 1908 under the name Technical Museum of the Czech Kingdom with a modern programme of documentation of principal development trends of technical progress, evaluation of their benefits to the society, and preserving representative samples of this development for future generations. All these are the activities through which the National Technical Museum has been, since its founding, contributing to understanding the character and sense of modern civilisation.

The state subsidies have enabled to rise the number of employees and to put money into new exhibitions. In the years before 1989, the Museum succeeded in increasing its importance as a research and editorial institution for the history of sciences and technology, as well as in presenting itself through successful foreign exhibitions. In this way, it rose the awareness of itself in many European countries. Today, the National Technical Museum has a status of the central museum of the Czech Republic and the scientific institution with the documentation, presentation, methodological, and informative functions. The basis of its activities is the collections that have been created in the nation's memory.

The building of the National Technical Museum at Letna is one of the most successful examples of a modern museum building in the Czech Republic. The decision on its construction was made in 1921 and the dream came nearer to reality after less than thirteen years. A special building fund was created and in February 1935 the Board of Ministers granted its approval with the construction of a common building of the Agriculture and Technical Museums. The building was designed in the style of later functionalism in a strongly classic-like conception where a particular contribution comes from the symmetry of its parts as well as the whole, axial composition of main entries with emphasized vertical prism pillars, application of the most classical material - stone - for facing the pedestal and the external staircases, and suppression of horizontally of days. The symmetrical four-storey body of the Technical Museum, a structural triple-aisle of the wide U shape with two basements, the load-bearing structure of which is formed by a monolithic ferro-concrete frame, encircles a uniquely designed exhibition space where the permanent exhibition of transport is now situated. 

The National Technical Museum can be used for all kinds of social events, but mainly for welcome parties and receptions. The capacity for reception is up to 300 people.