The Trieste Section of the MNA collects findings connected to the history of exploration of the Antarctic continent and is responsible for the promotion of results and preservation of marine geological and sedimentological samples. It also promotes the results achieved by the Italian scientific community.

The collections are devoted to the history of mountaineering and comprise about 260,000 items:

- DOCUMENT CENTRE:
160,000 photographs (Photo Library); 9300 printed papers of films, including all the various types of promotional support (film posters and documents of cinema, as well programmes, flyers, promotional photos and set shots, posters of tourism from sport to commerce); 700 covers of Italian and international magazines; 4300 picture cards; 3500 ephemera and various papers; 600 board games and other games. The most recent acquisitions are a collection of more than 2000 ex libris, (Iconographic Collections);
1100 Führerbuchs, or “testimonials”, and guide registration sheets; and about 220 mountain-refuge registers. They also include other documents such as the registers of peaks, the Museum’s Visitors’ Books and personal memories, among which Guido Rey’s diary (1870-1914), the first draft of Carolina Palazzi Lavaggi’s accounts of her excursions (1870-1883), and Andrea Oggioni’s climbing diaries (1948-1961). Furthermore, the Viaggio sul Monte Rosa of Queen Margherita for the inauguration of the refuge dedicated to her at Punta Gnifetti, on 18 August 1893, with her signature and those of some of her famous escorts, among whom Baron Luigi Peccoz and Vittorio Sella, the latter responsible for the photographic documentation (Mountaineering Archive).

- HISTORIC FILM AND VIDEO LIBRARIES
650 rolls of film, 2250 TV films and programmes in video cassettes and DVDs, 1100 promotional shorts and other non-professional material.

- CISDAE − Italian Documentation Study Centre for Outside Europe Mountaineering)
3400 folders containing clippings from magazines and newspapers or detailed reports with sketches and photos of climbs, ski-mountaineering trips and excursions. The last two hundred folders have been digitised, 50 topographical studies and guides of the Karakorum and Hindu-Kush areas.

-CAI National Library
31,000 volumes, 18,100 annuals (1654 periodicals), 9500 document papers and 25 linear meters of historic archives.

Small collection of Arctic and Antarctic artefacts chiefly collected on expeditions organized by Istituto Geografico Polare to Antarctica (1959), Rankin Inlet (1961 and 1967), Lapland (1962), East Greenland (1963), and Repulse Bay (1969). Also some materials from the Arctic expeditions of the Duke of Abruzzi (1899-1900), Nobile (1926, 1928), and others

The Padiglione Nobile within this museum is the main depository for artefacts relating to Nobile's two polar expeditions in the airships Norge (1926) and Italia (1928), including expedition relics, airship models, a copy of the "Red tent" and a replica mooring mast. A model of the pilot's cabin of the airship Italia N-4 will be ready for display in 1996