About Us

Prime Ministers Museum & Library

The Prime Ministers Museum and Library is housed in the sprawling Thirty Acre historic Teen Murti campus located south of Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi.

Designed by Robert Tor Russell and built in 1929–30 as part of Edwin Lutyens' imperial capital, Teen Murti House was originally built as the official residence of the British Commander-in-Chief in India. In August 1948, after the departure of the last British Commander-in-Chief, Teen Murti House became the official residence of independent India's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, who lived here for sixteen years until his death on May 27, 1964. Soon thereafter, the Government of India decided that the Teen Murti House should be dedicated to him and house a museum and a library.

On Jawaharlal Nehru's 75th birth anniversary on November 14, 1964 Dr. Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan, Hon’ble President of India, formally dedicated the Teen Murti House to the nation and inaugurated the Nehru Memorial Museum.

On 1st April 1966, the Government set up the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library Society to manage the institution, which has emerged as a House of Democracy for the Indian masses on the one hand and as a premier research centre and forum for intellectual activity on the other.

Initially, the Museum was set up in the eastern wing of the Teen Murti House and the Library in the western wing. With the rapid growth of research material in the Library over the years, there was a pressing need for more space. An exclusive Library building was constructed adjacent to the Teen Murti House and inaugurated by Shri V. V. Giri, President of India, in January 1974.

The steady increase in the volume of research material further necessitated the construction of an Annexe building, which was completed in 1989. The Centre for Contemporary Studies was set up as a new unit of PMML in this building in 1990.

In 2016, it was decided to convert the Nehru Memorial Museum into a Prime Ministers Museum & Library by addition of a new landmark building and enhancing the mandate of the Museum to showcasing the lives, vision & contribution of all the Prime Ministers of the country since independence. The Museum in its vastly enhanced form was finally opened for the public on 14th April 2022 at the hands of the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India Shri Narendra Modi. While the old block now houses the Constitution Gallery & The Gallery of the 1st Prime Minister Shri Jawaharlal Nehru, the new Block named as PMS 2 houses the gallery of Prime Ministers from Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri onwards. One of the unique features of the museum now is the extensive use of technology for enhancing visitor experience. Use of Artificial Intelligence to enable conversation with stalwarts of the bygone era is a recent major step in this direction.

The Nehru Planetarium located within the PMML premises is also a major tourist attraction. With regular 2D & 3D shows on astronomy, the Planetarium has emerged as a very popular attraction for children and adults alike.

Over time the PMML has emerged as a premier institution of research on the Indian history and society of the modern and contemporary period. Its Fellowship program offering a variety of Fellowships is regarded as highly prestigious in academic circles. As a centre of academic excellence, PMML organizes regular academic talks and seminars to showcase elements of modern and contemporary Indian history.

The PMML has enhanced and expanded its academic resources considerably in the recent past. Today, the Library houses not just an exhaustive collection of published material on numerous aspects of modern and contemporary history but also possesses an impressive and diverse archival holding. Regularly updated, expanded and made available for research, these holdings make the PMML a major academic destination for Indian and foreign scholars from diverse disciplines and varied fields of interest.

The Prime Ministers Museum is the only Museum of its kind on the globe, yet it is much more than a highly prestigious museum. It is a centre of Excellence in showcasing vibrant democratic India through the lives, vision and contribution of its Prime Ministers, in research into modern and contemporary Indian history and a peep into the space through its state of art shows on astronomy. The Sound & Light shows held daily and the tourist facilities add to the unique attraction that the PMML holds for its visitors.