The museum, opened on 19 May 1989, was created in remembrance of Ventspils writer Herberts Dorbe (1894–1983), an avid researcher of regional history. The name of the house-Senču putekļi (‘Dust of the Ancestors’) – refers to the writer’s collection of ethnographic items, which in 1970 he donated to Ventspils Museum. The building of the house, the origin of the name and the creation of the garden is described by Dorbe in his book Savu bēniņu direktors (‘Director of My Own Attic’).