The museum was founded in 1991 in the house of Marija and Jurgis Šlapeliai, which they bought in 1926.The house is a monument of 17th century architecture. The museum's exposition was opened in 1994. The expositions on the household and activities of Maria and Jurgis Šlapeliai reflect the life of the Vilnius region from the second half of the 19th century until the 1940s. It shows how book publishing revived after the abolition of the ban on printing, the establishment of Lithuanian printing houses and bookshops, the active work of book publishers, the creation of societies, the development of education, the development of the press and other important cultural phenomena that stimulated and accelerated the political events that led Lithuania to independence. The Museum's archives contain more than 25,000 exhibits, including books, dictionaries, furniture, personal effects, photographs, letters and works of art. Each item in the Šlapela family home reveals a small, but differently coloured, piece of the life and work of this important Lithuanian family.
