Instituted as a branch of the "Carlo Alberto" Barnabite Boarding School of Moncalieri, the Collegio "Alla Querce" was opened in October 1868, with only one boarder. Two years later a geodynamic observatory was installed in the school, and experiments and meteorological and seismic observations were carried out which, thanks mainly to the work of the Barnabite Timoteo Bertelli, made a significant contribution to the development of theoretical and experimental seismology. Scientific activity, of which important traces remain in the Institute's historical collections, was pursued intensely over the years. In 1905 Camillo Melzi d'Eril succeeded Timoteo Bertelli. The activity of seismic observation came to an end in the early 1930s.

The physics collection, formed mainly for educational purposes, was enriched with instruments (dating from the 19th and 20th centuries) used in the scientific research carried out in the school. Noteworthy are the seismological instruments of Timoteo Bertelli, prototypes of machines for telegraphy and radio communications, and electrical machines. The naturalist collection, organised starting from the school's foundation, includes dried animal specimens, specimens preserved in fluid, animal and human skeletons, and a group of minerals. At present the boarding school is closed, the premises have been assigned to other uses and the collections are awaiting a new collocation.