Ferdinand Meucci was hired as an employee by the Museo di Fisica e Storia Naturale (Museum of Physics and Natural History) in 1844. In 1852 he was reassigned to the Italian Meterology Archives which had been a department within the Museum established by Vincenzio Antinori back in 1839. In the following years, Meucci added to his responsibilities the care of the expansive antique collection of physics and astronomical instruments. For this reason in 1874, under the directorship of Filippo Parlatore, he was officially entrusted the care of the entire patrimony held in the Galileo Tribune and in the nearby rooms. This was the first core of what would later become the “Museum of Antique Instruments”, which Meucci assumed the role as director for the final years of his life.

Meucci purchased and commissioned the restoration of many instruments, particularly the astronomical ones, conducting detailed studies of the Arab instruments now preserved at the Museo Galileo of Florence.