Pedro Joseph de Lemos

Pedro Joseph de Lemos was an artist, educator, printmaker, and the first curator of the Stanford University Art Gallery. His instructional books connect design principles with objects that students and home craftspeople could make themselves. Color Cement Handicraft, written with Reta A. Lemos and issued by Davis Press, explains the preparation of colored cement for tiles, pottery, garden pieces, molds, and classroom projects. Gift Card Designing turns to lettering, composition, color, and decorative motifs for seasonal and personal cards, using examples to show how a small format can carry a coherent design. Together, the books reveal de Lemos’s preference for teaching through materials, careful planning, and repeatable exercises. His work at Stanford and his broader art-education career gave that practical instruction an institutional foundation, while Reta’s collaboration is central to the cement volume. Color Cement Handicraft and Gift Card Designing remain useful records of early twentieth-century American craft education and graphic design practice.