The museum’s history
The museum’s history begins in the 1970’s when Luigi Poscia, a local farmer, began to collect objects that belonged to a world that he felt was rapidly evolving.
Luigi started gathering objects that reflected the reality of the everyday life and work of the local population to preserve tangible evidence of that world while the use of plastic, highly mechanized agricultural work and mass media were rapidly taking over.
A big contribution was made by Rodolfo Calpini in 1993 when he had students from the University of Rome La Sapienza conduct an inventory of the entire collection.
At the time, a lot of people from Latera contributed to the collection by identifying the objects and providing stories and information about their use.
That same year the mayor, Giocondo Cherubini, bought the Grancia of San Pietro (the current location of the museum) on behalf of the town.
In 1995 the municipal council, lead by Angelo Ginanneschi, approved the renovation of the Grancia in order to create the Museo della terra. It took over 4 years to prepare the first installation, which launched on May 22nd 1999, and another 3 for the current installation, inaugurated on October 19th 2003.
The areas were designed by architect Lorenzo Greppi and the installation was planned and curated by anthropologist Luciana Mariotti.
Many researchers and restorers also worked on the installation.
