It was founded on 8 March 1924 by Sir Rufus Daniel Issacs during the coronation year of Sadeq Mohammad Khan V.[1][2][3] It cost 100,000 rupees by Bahawalpur State and is the second largest library in the province of Punjab.

[1][2] The library is one of the buildings built by the Nawabs that was designed in a hybrid Neo-Gothic-Victorian style.

[3] Unlike other royal buildings, arches in the library are not multi-foiled, but are instead single-foiled.

A porch wraps around some of the building, and has an octagonal tower with Jali work on its arches, and stylized Victorian scrolls at its base.

[2] It has over 100,000 books,[2][4] and contains a repository of historic documents related to the state of Bahawalpur and Khwaja Ghulam Farid.