The "Luigi Orlando" Shipyard was founded in Livorno in 1866 by the Orlando brothers who obtained the concession of a vast tract of the port area from the government. The shipyard specialised in the construction of hulls and engines. Work orders arrived from all over the world, and grew intense with World War II.

In 1904, the Company Museum was instituted to preserve the models of the ships built by the shipyard. The museum closed in the 1970s and the collection was dismembered: the military ship models were given on free loan to the Naval Academy of Livorno, where they still are today, while the mercantile ship models, handcrafted by the Shipyard Modellers Workshop between 1885 and the 1960s, were lent to the Commune of Livorno.

Today, the company collection has been reformed, and is made up of the ship models reclaimed from the Commune in 1996. The collection also contains the models of the ships built by the shipyard as of 1996, made with industrial methods by specialised firms, the propelling machinery of the "Sicilia" steamship, the first iron steamship built in Italy in 1856, the model of a propelling machinery, and a model in 1:500 scale of the shipyard area dating to 1940 circa.

Following a change of ownership, the shipyard has recently changed its type of production, and now builds important pleasure craft.