The original group of utensils in the museum's collection was formed in preparation for an exhibition on the harvesting and processing of chestnuts, organised by the Associazione Pro Loco [Local Tourist Association] on the occasion of the Chestnut Festival held in 1981. Subsequently, thanks to donations from the townspeople, the collection was enriched with implements pertinent to other aspects of rural life in the locality, which then formed the core of the museum's exhibition, set up in 1989.

The ethnographic collection, consisting mainly of pieces dating from the 20th century, is divided into two main groups: the first is made up of utensils employed in the activities of daily life; the second includes a variety of tools used by the local craftsmen and farmers (for work in the fields and chestnut groves, for threshing, and in the shoemaker's craft). This second group is displayed in what was once the olive-oil mill of the Museum House, which still has its nineteenth-century grindstone.