It was created by the Kujawski Branch of the Polish Sightseeing Society, based on the resolution of its Board of Directors of June 2, 1908.

The ceremonial opening of the Kujawski Museum (because it was originally named) took place on March 14, 1909. The first seat of the museum was located at ul. Kaliska 1 (today POW street). The basis of the collection were exhibits of the School Museum of the Polish Matrix and a collection of the Society of the Library and Reading Room of Adam Mickiewicz in Włocławek.

In January 1910, a committee was established to organize the "Ethnographic and Artistic Exhibition". Collecting monuments of folk culture in order to reconstruct the model Kuyavian hut, which was to be the most important element of the exhibition, began. The exhibition was opened on May 14, 1911. Its main coordinator was custodian Cyprian Apanowicz, who managed to present 887 exhibits!

The modest housing conditions and the increasing number of collected monuments led to the establishment of the Building Committee of the building of the Museum of the Kujawy Region in 1925. The building was erected at ul. Słowackiego 1a was opened on December 7, 1930. On the occasion of the opening, the first guide to the Museum of Kujawy by the custodian Szymon Rajcy was published. In addition to the permanent ethnographic exhibition until 1939, a dozen or so temporary exhibitions were presented, mainly of an artistic nature. The exhibits gathered during this period were mostly lost during the Nazi occupation.

In 1945, the activity of the Kujawska Museum was reactivated and vigorously supplemented with the loss of war. Thanks to the involvement of Henryk Królikowska, museum manager in the years 1945-1965, not only did she succeed in rebuilding the pre-war position of the institution, but also created the basis for its dynamic development. Until 1972, the only headquarters of the museum was the main building at ul. The Slovak. The initiative of H. Królikowska was to obtain for the museum purposes eighteenth-century tenement houses at the Old Market Square. In 1972, the Włocławek History Museum was opened there. As a result of the new administrative division in 1975, the Kuyavian Museum was transformed into the Museum of the Kuyavian and Dobrzyń Land, which covered the area of ​​the newly created Włocławek province.

In the 1980s of the 20th century, the museum's base was further developed. In 1983, the Museum for them was opened Stanisław Noakowski in Nieszawa, which is a branch of the Museum of the Kuyavian and Dobrzyń Land. The dynamic enlargement of the museum collections gave rise to the need to acquire new warehouse and exhibition spaces for the departments of ethnography and art. It was connected with the necessity of the restaurant and the adaptation of three historic grain granaries in Włocławek. In 1986, in the granary at ul. Bulwary 6, the Ethnographic Museum was opened. At the same time, the maintenance and adaptation of the largest granary in Włocławek Street was underway. Zamcza 10/12. On the 80th anniversary of the establishment of the Włocławek Museum, on March 14, 1989, the building was opened under the name of the Art Collection. At the same time, the museum acquired a granary at ul. Bulwary 9. The creation of another branch of the Museum of the Kuyavian and Dobrzyń Land resulted from the need to save historic folk architecture. After many years of work, the Kujawsko-Dobrzyński Ethnographic Park in Kłóbka near Lubień was made available for visitors in 1993. Since then, the open-air museum has been systematically expanded and is to include 40 buildings typical of the rural architecture of Kujawy and Dobrzyń region.

Exhibitions of the Museum of the Kujawska and Dobrzyń Land:

- Fajans Włocławski - the exhibition presents 525 monuments depicting the history of faience ornamentation in the years 1873-1991.
- Polish Portrait Gallery - permanent exhibition "Polish portrait gallery" opened in 2009, presents selected works by eminent Polish painters.

The Museum of the Kuyavian and Dobrzyń region also has its branches:

- Ethnographic Museum - the Museum's seat is a complex of buildings at Bulwarach on the Vistula River with a historic granary erected in the mid-nineteenth century (before 1848), probably according to the design of Franciszek Turnelle - the then town architect of Włocławek.
- Art Collections - Art Collections of the Museum of the Kujawska and Dobrzyń Land in Włocławek are located in a historic granary at ul. Zamcza 10/12, which was built in 1839.
- The Stanisław Noakowski Museum - located in Nieszawa was established in 1934 and operated until the outbreak of World War II. It was located in the presbytery, the building where St. Noakowski.
- Open-air museum in Kłóbka - due to its location among hills, forests and lakes, Kłóbka is called the "Pearl of Kujawy". In this charming landscape there is an ethnographic park with a dozen or so objects of rural architecture, the oldest of which dates back to the 18th century. Museum of History of Włocławek
- Włocławek Museum of History - is closed to visitors due to renovations.