It specializes in economic subjects and is housed in the former Oratory of San Felipe Neri, under the care of the Mexican Ministry of Finance and Public Credit . Its collection comprises 86,350 titles and 114,852 volumes.
In order to stimulate the study and documentation of economic sciences in Mexico, in 1928 the then Secretary of Finance, Luis Montes de Oca, commissioned Jesús Silva-Herzog , then head of the Historical Archive of the Treasury, and the bibliographer Francisco Gamoneda , to consolidate the various collections related to the economy in the history of Mexico, such as the Royal Treasury of the 18th century and the Public Treasury of the 19th century from the time of Mexican independence.
The site chosen for the new collection was the Empress's Chapel in the National Palace , where Gamoneda ordered the installation of a carved wooden bookshelf similar to that of the Library of El Escorial in Spain. The library was opened to the public in October 1928. In 1957, on the occasion of the centenary of the Reform Laws , it was named after Miguel Lerdo de Tejada , in homage to the man who held the position of Secretary of the Treasury during the presidencies of Ignacio Comonfort and Benito Juárez.
Given the growing collection of the library, in 1970 it was moved to the main hall of the former Oratory of San Felipe Neri “El Nuevo”, on República de El Salvador street, where it remains to this day.
![image showing [OC] Former church transformed into a library, Mexico City](15d4e738-0dcd-596b-b556-fa72e1bd3b9b.jpg)
Charlos11 on November 19th, 2025 at 12:50 UTC »
I love seeing churches turned into something actually useful!
bakeacake45 on November 19th, 2025 at 13:19 UTC »
Beautiful and meaningful to turn a house of ignorance and fear into a house of learning. Bravo!
Spartan2470 on November 19th, 2025 at 14:22 UTC »
Here this is via Google Street View.
Thats the Miguel Lerdo de Tejada Library