And it's often down to luck that so many have made their way into the National Museum of Australia's historical collection. But just as often, the collection is enriched by individuals who donate items, knowing they will form part of the museum's core collection of history and help tell the country's story.

The museum is this week hosting an event to thank the hundreds of people who have helped build the collection of more than 232,000 objects, through money or material donations. Among them will be Jim Maple-Brown who, along with his wife Pamela and his sister, Diana Boyd, donated a treasure trove of items relating to Australian colonial life from 1800 to 1950.

Known as the Springfield collection, it had remained in the Faithfull and Maple-Brown families since the early 1800s and contained original clothing from the late 1700s onwards, books, toys, household paraphernalia and farming tools.

Mr Maple-Brown, who still lives in Goulburn, said the collection had been carefully preserved in the house for generations. But when the family made the decision to sell the Springfield mansion, it fell to him to decide what to do with the treasures within. "I inherited it and I felt a responsibility to look after it, to act as a curator," he said.

He said giving the collection to the National Museum in 2004 was the perfect solution. "It was a win for [the museum] because they'd been criticised for having too much Aboriginal focus in the collection and not enough colonial, and suddenly our massive collection of colonial stuff came to them, so it was fortunate because it relieved me of a huge responsibility."

He said although he was surprised at how valuable the collection turned out to be, money had not been a factor for him in deciding to donate.

Acting director of the museum Mat Trinca said the museum wouldn't be able to do the work it did without the generosity and forward thinking of its many donors to the collection.

For example, money from the public was helping in the restoration work of the Daimler Landaulette that was used by Queen Elizabeth during her first visit to Australia in 1954.

He said the collection was more eclectic than people realised, with items as diverse as the political ephemera relating to the life and work of former Greens leader Bob Brown, and objects from the trial of Lindy Chamberlain, whose nine-week-old baby was taken by a dingo at Uluru in 1989.

"I think it's a mix of things. There's material that you know is out there and you look to acquire when it becomes available," he said.

"There's material that you don't know about that emerges almost as a surprise … We were aware in general terms [of the Springfield collection] … but we had no idea that they were looking to divest themselves of the collection, to donate it somewhere where it might be held in perpetuity for the national interest."

There were also discoveries of material that it was never imagined existed, as well as items that would become significant in years to come. He said an example was the items relating to Yvonne Kennedy, an Australian who died in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in America. Ms Kennedy was a passenger on American Airlines Flight 77 when it crashed into the Pentagon. Her family donated some of her personal effects recovered from the crash site, as well as sympathy cards and a condolence book, to the museum in 2011.

For more information on the donating to the National Museum of Australia, visit nma.gov.au/collections.