The museum grew primarily from donations of local nobles, including members of the Kossakowski, Ogiński, Radziwiłł, Sapieha families. Thus the collection reflected interests and moods of Lithuanian nobility. In private correspondence, museum founders often referred to the museum as the Lithuanian Museum reflecting its patriotic character. The collection included a number of items related to the Kościuszko Uprising in 1794, French invasion of Russia in 1812, faculty members of the closed Vilnius University. Some of the items were of little historical value and of dubious authenticity, but served romantic nationalism. For example, cap that Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz wore on the day of his execution, lock of hair of Napoleon, grass from the grave of poet Franciszek Karpiński, a piece of bed drapes from the deathbed of Władysław IV Vasa. In a catalog of 1858, the first listed item was a bronze figure of Perkūnas, the Lithuanian god of thunder, found in Kernavė but it was revealed to be a piece of a 13th-century candelabra from Hildesheim in Germany. Other figurines of supposedly Lithuanian gods included sculptures of the god of war Kovas, the goddess of wisdom Praurimė, the goddess of love Milda, the household spirit žaltys, priestess vaidilutė.