The museum was established in 1980 at the initiative of the Chairperson of the Council of Veterans of the Chelyabinsk Polytechnic Institute Irina Aleksandrovna Korobova. The first part of the exhibit tells about the history of the university's creation. The museum's visitors learn how in 1951 Chelyabinsk Mechanical Engineering Institute was reorganized into Chelyabinsk Polytechnic Institute, and what the first student's cards and grade books looked like.