The Dmitrov Historical and Ethnographic Museum is located in the city of Dmitrovsk in the Oryol region of Russia and operates as an independent municipal institution of the Dmitrov district.

After the war, local history corners and school museums began to appear in the schools of the Dmitrov district, primarily focusing on the history of the Great Patriotic War. The establishment of the district branch of the All-Russian Society for the Protection of Historical and Cultural Monuments (VOOPiK) was an important step in uniting efforts for local history work. The founders of the future museum and collectors of exhibits were local history enthusiast and former front-line soldier Ivan Mitrofanovich Zhudin, who became the first director on a voluntary basis, and the chairwoman of VOOPiK Tamara Semyonovna Livanova. She secured from the city council the construction of a small building of 85 m² in the Kantemir city park for the future museum. January 2, 1973, is considered the beginning of the museum's creation, when the public council of the museum was formed.

Exhibits were collected in rural schools and organizations. Residents brought photographs, documents, and items. The museum has preserved many written documents on the history of the Dmitrov region, starting from the 18th century, when Peter I granted the estate in the Komaritskaya volost to the Moldavian hospodar Dmitry Cantemir and founded Dmitrovsk. The museum's collection expanded, and an extension of 90 m² was added to the building. The first exhibition was dedicated to the Great Patriotic War. In 1978, the Dmitrov local history museum was named the Dmitrov People's Museum by order of the Oryol Regional Department of Culture. The official opening of the museum took place in 1979, but it remained a public institution.

In 1985, for significant patriotic work among the youth, the Ministry of Culture of the RSFSR and the Central Committee of the trade union awarded the museum a second-degree diploma. In 1987, the museum was renamed the Historical and Ethnographic Museum and became a branch of the Oryol Regional Local History Museum.