Princeton University Press and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, are excited to announce a major initiative that will increase the availability and accessibility of the A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts. Beginning in October, forty-six Mellon Lectures published between 1953 and 2022 will be available in print, ebook, or both formats, including twenty-six titles that were long out of print and will feature stunning new covers.
Publication of the Mellon Lectures is fostered by ongoing, active collaboration between the National Gallery of Art and Princeton University Press, with the current initiative supported in especially critical ways by PUP’s digital publishing team. “We are thrilled to make the entire Mellon lecture series available again for a new generation of readers, both in print and accessible digital formats, a momentous endeavor that is part of an exciting strategic backlist initiative,” notes Brigitta van Rheinberg, Associate Director and Director of Global Development at PUP. “We are especially grateful for the partnership of the National Gallery of Art as well as the financial support of the Scribner family that has made this publishing event possible.”
“For over seventy years, Mellon lecturers have produced some of the most significant scholarship on the fine arts. We are delighted to partner with Princeton University Press to reintroduce these important volumes, an endeavor that aligns with both Princeton University Press and the National Gallery’s mission, vision, and values,” said Steven Nelson, Dean of the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts at the National Gallery of Art.
The A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts have been delivered annually since 1952 at the National Gallery of Art. Princeton University Press has published the resulting books in the Bollingen Series since 1967. Among the many notable titles in the series are Mary Beard’s Twelve Caesars, Isaiah Berlin’s The Roots of Romanticism, Kenneth Clark’s The Nude, Arthur C. Danto’s After the End of Art, and E. H. Gombrich’s Art and Illusion. Other acclaimed art historians and critics in the series include Jacques Barzun, John Boardman, T. J. Clark, Thomas Crow, Vidya Dehejia, Hal Foster, Michael Fried, Anthony Hecht, Joseph Leo Koerner, Jacques Maritain, Alexander Nemerov, Nikolaus Pevsner, John Pope-Hennessy, Herbert Read, Kirk Varnedoe, Helen Vendler, Richard Wollheim, and Wu Hung.
Throughout the digitization project, enhanced accessibility has been a priority. Ebooks will be in the EPUB 3 format with improved navigation, fully compliant with web content accessibility guidelines, and optimized to be compatible with assistive and adaptive technologies, including screen readers. They will include image descriptions for readers with visual or cognitive disabilities.
The digitization of the Mellon Lectures is part of an ongoing commitment to increasing the accessibility and availability of Princeton University Press books, an initiative that includes the Princeton Global Discovery Program, launched in 2020; the 2023 publication of The Collected Works of C. G. Jung: Revised and Expanded Complete Digital Edition, which features new content, navigation, and accessibility features; and the anticipated re-release of many titles in the Bollingen Series.
The Mellon initiative is supported by a gift in memory of Charles Scribner Jr., former trustee and president of Princeton University Press. The Press is grateful to the Scribner family for their commitment to preserving the Mellon Lectures and thrilled that this vital collection will be more accessible than ever to readers around the world—today and for generations to come.