First established in 1886 in a palace in the city of Morelia, the museum houses a splendid collection of pre-Hispanic artefacts, assembled by the institution’s first director, Nicolás León, as well as plates of rare codices, maps, ancient items of clothing and objects of historic importance such as the table where the Constitution of Apatzingán was signed.

The INAH Regional Museum for the state is in an old prison building of the Porfiriato in Hermosillo, dating to 1908. Its purpose is to display the archeology, history and culture of the region in its 18 permanent and five temporary exhibition galleries.

With its adjoining monastery, the church is considered one of the finest Baroque gems of the viceregal period. Both were built by the Dominicans with indigenous labor during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The museum has fine examples of the pre-Hispanic, religious, romantic and contemporary art of Oaxaca. There is also an important ethnobotanical garden, an old library and a newspaper and periodicals library.

One of the most outstanding colonial buildings in Zacatecas, it contains an excellent collection of the greatest painters of the period. Complemented by a fine collection of academic and popular sculptures of the religious art of New Spain.

Among the many stately homes of the Viceroyalty in Mexico is this home of the chief Conquistador, Hernán Cortés, in the capital of his vast domain. The history of the State of Morelos from the pre-Hispanic past up to the Revolution is shown through a varied collection of valuable objects and eloquent remains.

A modern building houses some thousand-year old remains of human life in the state. The museum shows the geology of the peninsula, fossils, its unique natural environment, the life of early settlers and their extraordinary cave paintings, the Jesuit Missions, and ethnology.

The history of Aguascalientes since prehistoric times up to Independence, in a magnificent Porfiriato-period (late nineteenth century) building, houses a collection covering archeology, the Christian religion, the Chichimeca War, the inland Camino Real with its silver ingots, the distant prison and the founding of the city.

The 1886 Ensenada military barracks (later to become a jail and then a training hospital) houses the regional history museum showing: Baja Californian life, landscapes and culture from their remote origins until the military revolt of 1885. The collection includes early remains as well as memorable photographs from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

A majestic Porfirian (late nineteenth-century building) holds a valuable collection of Maya pieces (some are on loan to the State Museum in Mérida), and hosts temporary exhibitions, lectures, concerts and workshops about the ancient and modern indigenous peoples of Mexico.

An impressive construction notable for the church’s remarkable Mudejar-style coffered ceiling made with gilded wood. The museum preserves the pre-Hispanic and viceregal history of Tlaxcala—a vital ally for the Conquistadors—along with displays of nineteenth and twentieth-century luxury objects and tools.