Virtually nothing is known about the establishment of the Museum of Help to Labor by the Moscow Division of the Imperial Technological Society. The article discusses the organization of the Museum and its activities before the revolution of 1905, and the role played by Moscow attorneys V. G. Vilents and N. K. Muraviov, the Moscow intelligentsia and political activists from the association of "young lawyers", in the museum's work. The Museum combined educational tasks with active work for the betterment of laborers' living and working conditions and study of Western European practices of labor protection and trade union mobilization. A unique civil institution, the Museum also popularized discoveries and inventions, offered technical expertise and consultations, provided legal and material assistance to workers, and helped organize some of the first labor unions in Russia.