The present-day institution derives from the unification, in 1998, of two secondary schools of different orientation: the Liceo Classico "Machiavelli", instituted in 1968, and the Istituto Magistrale "Capponi", established in 1860. The collections, which belonged to the Istituto Capponi, are kept today at its original location in Piazza Frescobaldi. The naturalist collection includes zoological, botanical, geological, mineralogical specimens and fossils from the 19th and 20th centuries. The physics collection consists of instruments and educational models for physics, dating from the second half of the 19th century on.