Location: 365 Chacabuco

Preservation Status: Historical Monument

The Museum of Education Gabriela Mistral (MEGM) was founded on September 13, 1941. Located in the west wing of the old Escuela Normal N° 1 de Santiago, at the crossroad of Chacabuco and Compañía de Jesús, in Yungay District, the building once hosted the institution in charge of training the female teachers in the country. The Escuela Normal N°1 was originally founded in 1886.

In 1941, under the Government of Pedro Aguirre Cerda, the Retrospective Exhibition on Education was presented at the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes as part of the celebrations of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the city of Santiago. The show displayed the artifacts and educational files of the country, dealing with primary, secondary and higher education from colonial times to the beginning of the 20th century. Following this exhibition, the idea of creating a museum space to recreate the socio-educational process of Chile was born, focused on the archiving, conservation, research, and dissemination of Chilean educational heritage.

Notwithstanding this achievement, the previous attempts at creating museums should be recognized, such as: the Exhibition of School Supplies in August of 1885 in the Central Hall of the Museo Nacional (currently the Natural History Museum of Chile), giving rise to the first pedagogical museum of Chile, which unfortunately did not last for long (closing in 1892).

In 1901, there was an attempt to revive the museum work through the exhibition Handcrafts from the Public Schools of Santiago. The following year, the need to work around the teachers’ syllabi was established and the“Pedagogical Museum and Library” was created.  Only in 1904 the Pedagogical Museum received resounding support, changing its name to National Museum of Education. The first exhibits revolved around educational processes and scientific themes.

In 1981 the building was declared a historical monument, and that same year the Pedagogical Museum had to vacate a locale it rented in the city center and move to its current location. In 2006 a new museum was opened as the heir of the former Pedagogical Museum. The new name honors the Chilean educator, poet and Nobel laureate Gabriela Mistral.

“Under the auspices of the Ministry of Public Education, the Pedagogical Museum of Chile will be created, an institution whose mission will be to preserve, enrich, display and disseminate all the material, educational, intellectual or artistic information related to the evolution of national education.” President Pedro Aguirre Cerda, To govern is to educate.