THE ARCHIVO GENERAL Y PUBLICO DE LA NACION. 
(GENERAL AND PuBLic NATIONAL ARCHIVE. ) 
LocaTIon, ADMISSION, Hours, ETC. 
Easily the most important single collection of historical manuscripts in the 
Republic of Mexico, and one of the most important on the American continent 
as well, is that contained in the Archivo General y Publico de la Nacion, com- 
monly referred to as the Archivo General. To distinguish it from the 
“archivos generales” of the various secretariats, it will be referred to in 
these pages as the Archivo General y Publico. 
This archive is housed, in quarters altogether inadequate for present needs, 
in the vast federal building fronting the Zocalo, known as the Palacio Na- 
cional. It is under the supervision of the Secretariat of Foreign Relations 
(Secretaria de Relaciones Exteriores), and permission to work in it is secured 
from that department. A letter from the United States ambassador to the 
Minister of Foreign Relations will be most likely to secure this permission. 
When seeking admission, it is well to make the application broad enough to 
cover all the privileges desired, for, in conformity with a very reasonable 
regulation of the archive, permits (permisos) are interpreted with some strict- 
ness. Thus, permission to copy documents is not included in permission to 
take notes, but must be specifically requested. However, to those properly 
introduced and bearing the requisite permit, ample privileges are given. The 
student who gains admission will be assigned a table by the director, and upon 
application the desired volumes or documents will be sent to him. 
As yet no general provision has been made by the archive authorities for 
making transcripts for private individuals, and ordinarily one must secure 
his own copyist, for whom permission to enter the archive must be secured. 
Transcripts will cost, on an average, twenty or twenty-five centavos per type- 
written page, letter size, inclusive of the verification. Copies of documents 
must bear the visto bueno of the director before being taken from the archive. 
The archive is usually open in summer from 7: 30 a. m. to 1:30 p. m., and 
in winter from 8: 30 a. m. to 1: 30 p. m. 
HISTORICAL SKETCH. 
Of the unfortunate history of this archive only such parts can be included 
here as will throw light on its contents and its present condition. 
The idea of an archivo general for Mexico originated with the enlightened 
viceroy, the Conde de Revilla Gigedo. In a communication to the king, dated 
March 27, 1790, he reported the scattered, disordered, imperilled condition of 
the records of the various government offices and other repositories, and 
recommended the establishment of a common centre, somewhere outside the 
capital, to which the older documents of all the collections might be taken and 
formed into a general archive." This recommendation was approved by the 
king, as was also that made later of establishing the proposed archive in the 
Alcazar, or palace, of Chapultepec, which was chosen as a place safe from 
* Archivo General y Publico, Correspondencia de los Virreyes, Revilla Gigedo, vol. 3, 
1790, a 444. 
