Looking Together | Tour Museum of La Casa del Libro
This event is free for conference attendees, but pre-registration is required as capacity is limited. Sign up for this event here.
Visit https://www.lacasadellibro.org/en/ for more information of the location.
The House of Books
The Casa del Libro is a library museum that worships the written word and the book as an object of art.
We are a community-based, nonprofit, educational cultural organization with local exemption 1101.01 and federal 501 (c)(3). We offer a dynamic program of exhibitions based on the collection and the work of collaborating artists. In addition, we organize educational activities, such as book arts workshops, book readings, and forums, through which we seek to bring the humanities closer to the community. In this way, the institution contributes to the reflection and understanding of local and global heritage by all sectors: students, teachers, neighbors, travelers, seniors, groups with special needs, and the general public.
Our beginnings
La Casa del Libro (LCDL) was founded in 1955. Following the “Let’s Get to Work” plan, Teodoro Moscoso, then president of the Puerto Rico Industrial Development Company (today DDEC), and his collaborators sought to locally produce finely printed and bound books to meet the needs of mid-20th century Puerto Rico.
Recognizing the experience of Elmer Adler (Rochester, 1884 – Puerto Rico, 1962), Fomento invited him to lead the project. In addition to being a renowned bibliophile and having established the graphic arts department at Princeton University, Adler founded The Pynson Printers, the magazines “Colophon: A Book Collector’s Quarterly” and “New Colophon,” and was a founding partner of the Random House publishing house. Understanding that the book industry would take years to develop on the island, Adler proposed creating an institution dedicated to exhibiting the best books in production and design throughout the centuries, while promoting and developing the arts of the book.
Along with Teodoro Moscoso (1910-1992), the founders of La Casa del Libro were: the writer Tomás Blanco (1896-1975), Guillermo Rodríguez Benítez (1914-1989) and Mariano Villaronga (1906-1987). Lcdo. Genaro Cautiño Bruno (1907 -1974), a prominent Puerto Rican bibliophile, was invited to serve as the first president of the Administrative Council of La Casa del Libro. On December 27, 1956, following the model of the New York City Library, where Adler was from, the entity was registered as a non-profit organization. With a prominent group of Puerto Ricans supporting the project, the illustrious group managed to establish the first museum in Old San Juan in the 20th century, and the second in Puerto Rico. The Industrial Development Company’s initiative to develop the fine book and printing industry on the island culminated in Adler’s vision of creating a museum with an educational purpose. A vision that still prevails.
The location for the then-named “Graphic Museum” was chosen by Adler himself: a house near the Capilla del Cristo on Santo Cristo Street. The Industrial Development Company bought the property chosen to house the project. While the architect Frederick C. Gjessing (1918 – 1997) restored the multi-family house, in the typical Spanish colonial style of the city, to transform it into a museum, Adler took care of obtaining the first incunabula and books donated from the first office and headquarters of the project, located in the Hornos Militares building, near San Juan Bay.
La Casa del Libro