The Allahabad Public Library was founded by the Government of North-Western Frontier Provinces. The present institution,
the Rajkiya (Government) Public Library is housed in the Thornhill-Mayne Memorial Building. It was erected
in the memory of C.B. Thronhill and F.O. Mayne, as a testament of their enduring friendship and ascription
to the values of scholarship.
The Library provides wide range of books, magazine, newspaper, gazettes and other reading materials,
in Hindi, English, Sanskrit, Urdu, Arabic, Persian, Bangla and French; some notable ones include
the Majama-ul-Bahrain, the Shahnama of Firdausi, Jyotish-Shastra and Ganesh Puran.
It is the oldest library in Prayagraj. The library has almost 75000 books apart from government
publications and parliamentary papers, old manuscripts and journals.