The Centre was founded in 1983 within the context of the adult education project "The Re-found Image", promoted by the communes of the Val di Bisenzio in the Eighties. In 1989 it assumed its current name; since 1996 it has been a part of the network of the Region of Tuscany's CRED (Educational and Didactic Resource Centres). The main purpose of the Centre is that of safeguarding and divulging the historic memory of the territory. The Centre includes a Historic Photographs Archive containing photos taken between 1880 and 1970, pertinent mainly to the Val di Bisenzio, and the Spranger Collection, with photographic slides for the stereoscope representing landscapes and archaeological sites.

The ethnographic collection contains 300 specimens representative of daily life in the Valle del Bisenzio, from the second half of the 19th century to the first half of the 20th, pertinent to farming and shepherding and to the ancient crafts, as well as machinery and implements linked to the different stages of the local proto-industry (from the water-driven mill to the development of textile industries in the 19th and 20th centuries). The collection is awaiting collocation in the future Museum, which will be located in the basement of the Pieve di San Ippolito.