Exhibitions of historical archives not only relate to the display of the archives themselves, they also relate to the interpretation of history. Curators present their personal views of certain periods of history through the archives on display or the environment they create. Moreover, leaders of museums and archives could apply their authority to exert a personal historical consciousness through the archives on display. The author curated the first exhibition on “Historical Archives at the National Palace Museum in 1985” by the Department of Rare Books and Historical Documents and since then has undertaken the task of curating exhibitions on Qing palace archives. Spanning a period of 25 years, a total number of five directors (Ch’in Hsiao-yi, Tu Cheng-sheng, Shih Shou-chien, Lin Mun-lee, Chou Kung-shin) have been in charge of the National Palace Museum over the political changes of Taiwan in the past decades, and Director Ch’in and Director Tu were the two with the strongest historical viewpoints. Not only did they become involved in the curatorial direction of the history exhibits organized by the Department of Rare Books and Historical Documents, they also influenced the curators’ historical interpretation in the exhibits. This paper discusses exhibitions as case studies and the author’s personal experiences as a curator to explain how the Department of Rare Books and Historical Documents at the National Palace Museum has used in-house and loan exhibits to engage in a dialogue with Taiwan history under the influences of policy-makers’ ideologies. The study also probes how a national museum, not to mention a world-class museum, should use its collection to form a dialogue with local history and thus shoulder its responsibility of fulfilling the function of history education.