The Most Unusual Museums in Mexico City

Mexico City boasts an impressive number of museums, around 150 by some counts.  The Distrito Federal, or D.F., as it is locally known, has given birth to iconic artists like Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera (whose shared home has been converted into a museum), a vibrant contemporary art scene, and a number of storied institutions like the Palacio de Bellas Artes. Its vast, architecturally stunning National Museum of Anthropology is the eighth largest museum in the world.

But these are all destinations you can read about in an ordinary tourist handbook. This list collects the smaller, sometimes out-of-the-way museums of the D.F. whose unusual collections might not appeal to just anyone. Idiosyncratic museums, dedicated to things like communist revolutionaries, antique toys, and well-designed packaging, are a specialty of Mexico City, and you’d be hard-pressed to find their equivalents in other places. These museums may not have achieved the fame of, say, the Casa Frida Kahlo, yet no exploration of Mexico City could be totally complete without them.