AMHERST, MA.- The Mead Art Museum at Amherst College has published its first e-book, The Development of the Art Collection of Amherst College, 1871-1971 (Kindle Edition), for the Amazon.com Kindle e-reader.

The original version of the book was written by the museum’s first director, Charles H. Morgan, in 1972, and 1,000 copies of the 160-page volume were published by Amherst College Press. This past year, Teddy O’Connor, an assistant in the Mead, digitally transcribed Morgan’s text for the Kindle. The new e-book features updated images (which appear in black and white on the Kindle and in color on the BlackBerry, iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, Mac and Windows PC), as well as hyperlinks to each artwork’s corresponding entry in the free, online Five Colleges Collection Database.

“With this engaging—and at times, swashbuckling—tale of the formation of the Mead’s collection across the centuries, the Mead has become one of the world’s first museums to release an e-book,” noted the museum’s director and chief curator, Elizabeth Barker. “We’re delighted to be able to share Professor Morgan’s appealing story with a new, global readership.”

The e-book is available for $1.99 via the Amazon.com Kindle bookstore. Downloading it requires either a Kindle, or a BlackBerry, iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, Mac or Windows PC running the Amazon.com Kindle App.

The Mead Art Museum houses the art collection of Amherst College, totaling more than 16,000 works. An accredited member of the American Association of Museums, the Mead participates in Museums10, a regional cultural collaboration.