The History Department has, from its inception, collected guild documentation from Bielsko and Biała dating from between the 16th and 20th centuries. These comprise privileges, guild books, charters, membership registers, and certificates of completion of vocational training. The collection also contains documents which relate to the region between the 18th and 20th centuries, such as morality, faith and school certificates, agreements of sale and purchase of lands, and council records. There are documents relating to social organisations, social and cultural institutions such as the Theatre in Bielsko, the Association of Ex-Servicemen in Biała, the ‘Polish Reading Room’ Association in Biała, the Gymnastic Society ‘Sokół’, and the ‘Bilitia Schlaraffia’ Association which operated in the area of Bielsko, Biała and the whole region in the 19th and the 20th centuries. The collection also contains magazines from the 19th and 20th centuries. An iconographic documentation of Bielsko and Biała is presented in the form of numerous postcards and picture postcards from the 19th and 20th centuries.

Worthy of special note is the collection of cartographic works which includes some of the oldest atlases, maps and plans. Of interest in the collection are two blocks comprising around 170 hand-coloured maps dating back to the 16th century onwards.

Of considerable historical and artistic value is the collection of photographs from the period between 1860 and 1939, gleaned from the photographic studios in Bielsko and Biała.

Numismatics and medallic art make up a group of numerous exhibits within this department. On display in the numismatic collection are ancient coins, from the 1st century BCE to the 4th century CE, Polish and Silesian coins from between the 11th and 18th centuries, modern commemorative coins and a collection of replacement banknotes of Upper Silesia and the Regained Territories issued between 1916 and 1948. The most numerous items in the medallic collection are Polish medals minted on special historical and political occasions or in honour of some prominent figure. Silesian medals also feature in this collection.    

The collection also boasts numerous examples of phaleristics from the 19^th and 20^th centuries in the form of decorations, badges, military organisation insignia, paramilitary insignia, Polish army insignia, as well as insignia used during the time of the Austro-Hungarian partition in Poland.

The department also holds guild stamps and municipal seals, some displayed on documents, from between the 16^th and 20^th centuries. There are also banners belonging to political and social organisations operating in the town and across the whole region.

The department collects archival material relating to the famous Polish watercolourist Julian Fałat (1853-1929) and this is presented in the form of copious correspondence, photographic documentation, certificates and decorations.

As far as modern history is concerned, the department collects memorabilia related to the activities of Solidarity (Solidarność) in the area of Podbeskidzie from the 1980s in the form of magazines, books, brochures and posters etc.