The museum was opened in 1991 in an old school building and has around 2000 objects on display. The exhibition is characterized by two different collections. One is a large amount of all sorts of handicrafts, like embroidery, woven textiles, knitted things, national costumes and other handmade items. Most of the handicrafts were made by women from the area. The other collection is the library of the couple from Leirhöfn, Helgi Kristjánsson and Andrea Jónsdóttir. In 1952, they donated their 9000-volume library Helgi had largely bound himself, to the county.