Treasury of the Press as part of Mostazafan Foundation's Cultural Institute of Museums began its activities in 1996. Since then, it has been collecting, organizing and classifying valuable works of the Iranian press published in the past two hundred years. During this time, around 5,000 newspaper article titles, from about 300,000 issues, have been archived in the Treasury of the Press.

The Treasury of the Press has exhibited and presented its valuable collection in 15 international and exclusive press exhibitions.

The present collection at the treasury is the result of the efforts of many honest and hard-working colleagues who have been collecting Persian historical publications in the country since 1996 as decided by the then president of the foundation. The fruit of these efforts is now a collection that it is safe to say is one of the most complete collections of historical periodicals in the country. Among the people who have contributed to the completion of this collection is the late Mr. Hesamuddin Khorrami, a press archivist.

The Press Treasury archive which currently has a package, albeit physically organized form, is awaiting move to a new space where all the treasuries are to be located.

The oldest Iranian Persian publication is the "Kaghaz-e-akhbar" (the title is a literal translation of the English word "newspaper"), a picture of which is available in the press treasury. The original version of this paper is said to be kept in a library in the city of London. The newspaper started work under Mirza Saleh Shirazi on May 4, 1837 and was published in Tehran for three years.

The second Iranian newspaper was published in 1849 AD in the city of Urmia in the Assyrian (Syriac) language under the name of "Zaher Yaradi Bahra" (meaning "rays of light").

But two years later, (the oldest publication present in this press treasury), Vaqaye Etefaqiyeh newspaper was was published. It is the third Iranian newspaper and the second Persian newspaper published in Iran. It was commissioned by Mirza Taghi Khan Farahani known as Amir Kabir, the progressive prime minister of Nasser al-Din Shah Qajar. Its publication started in the third year of the Shah's reign. The paper was published and distributed weekly for ten years. In fact, this newspaper is a forerunner of state-owned newspapers in Iran, which were published with frequent changes of names, until the First World War.

The first issue of the Vaqaye Etefaqiyeh newspaper was published on February 7, 1851.  The first issue did not have a name. Since the news of this newspaper started with the news of the capital, most sources have given this publication the title of "Dar-al-Khalafah newspaper of Tehran" (which means "the newspaper of the capital Tehran"). And some have named it "Assadollah-Al-Ghalib" (which means "the victorious lion of God" a title originally given to Imam Ali, the first Shiite Imam), as this phrase was printed at the top of the first page of the paper.

The publication was named "Vaqaye Etefaqiyeh" in the second issue of the newspaper. The "Vaqaye Etefaqiyeh" newspaper was published under the same name until issue 470. Issue 471 was named "Vaqaye paper". But in the next issue it got a totally different name "the Government against Iran" newspaper, and continued to publish.