JHNA was the brainchild of Wayne Franits. As president of Historians of Netherlandish Art from 2005 to 2009, Wayne made the foundation of an e-journal dedicated to superior scholarship in our field a central goal of his tenure. HNA Board member Ann Jensen Adams, a technological visionary in her own right, took it from there. Over the next few years, Ann (with Wayne’s support) consulted with experts and planned the organization and design of this journal, working closely with the gifted web designer whom she hired, Russ Coon of Studiosonic Interactive Media. In addition to creating the site, Russ has posted much of the material for this first issue and contributed his expertise in countless other ways. Eve Sinaiko, former Director of Publications for the College Art Association, and Petra ten-Doesschate Chu, editor of Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide (19thc-artworldwide.org), should also be thanked for the counsel they have offered throughout this journal’s development.
Once the HNA board had appointed the three of us to be editors, we developed the recommendations in Ann’s project report, established policies, and ultimately worked with Russ on the final design. We have adopted a double-blind peer review process, which has relied on the expertise of numerous reviewers. We want to thank each and every one of these anonymous readers — you know who you are. Our copy editor Cindy Bohn deserves acknowledgement as well. Her excellent work at the Getty Center brought her to the attention of board member Ann Woollett. Cindy’s experience and dedication to accuracy, consistency, and readability have shown her to be a marvelous addition to the staff of our fledgling journal. Andrea Phelps’s technical assistance has also been appreciated.
This first issue, dedicated to Carol Purtle and containing articles on Early Netherlandish art, will be followed by a second in December 2009, which will contain a good variety of work on various aspects of 15th-18th-century art. It will also include a translation of Eric Jan Sluijter’s “Over Brabantse vodden, economisch concurrentie, artistieke wedijver en de groei van de markt voor schilderijen in de eerste decennia van de zeventiende eeuw,” an article from Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek, 1999. Our third issue, to appear in June of 2010, will quite possibly focus on the 18th century. Watch for the call for manuscripts.
From time to time, the JHNA editors hope to publish translations of important articles in Dutch (such as Eric Jan’s article) to increase their availability to the larger scholarly community. And since the unique medium of electronic scholarship allows publishing in a variety of non-traditional formats, we have discussed inviting photo essays and establishing webinars (on-line seminars) along with much else. But for the near future, this journal will be dedicated primarily to publishing original scholarly articles. The book reviews will remain in the HNA Newsletter.
A word about indexing and archiving. With this first issue, JHNA will apply to be listed with Portico, an electronic archiving service initiated by JSTOR and supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Ithaka, and Library of Congress. After the third issue, we will apply to ISI Web of Knowledge, a database run by Thompson Reuters. Indexing with the Bibliography of the History of Art (BHA) had also been our plan, although as of this writing, the BHA’s fate remains uncertain. We hope that JSTOR itself will soon decide to archive on-line journals. For the time being, we will make every effort to ensure recognition of authors’ work and the general availability of our journal.
A note on funding. In order to gain the widest possible audience, JHNA has decided to offer the journal free of charge to everyone, not just to HNA members. This open access policy can only continue if we receive your help. Many of our members responded generously to the fund-raising campaign that allowed us to set up of the journal last year, and you’ll find their names here under Contributions. As for ongoing costs, membership dues cover a fraction of them. We need your help individually and your ideas for fundraising opportunities and possibilities.
Most pressingly, we urge you to consider JHNA as a venue for your own publications. With your help we can make JHNA one of the premier journals of Netherlandish art.
Alison M. Kettering, Molly Faries, and Jeffrey Chipps Smith
Editorial Board
Alison M. Kettering, Editor-in-Chief, William R. Kenan Professor of Art History, Carleton College
Molly Faries, Associate Editor, Professor Emerita, Department of the History of Art, Indiana University
Jeffrey Chipps Smith, Associate Editor, Kay Fortson Chair in European Art, University of Texas, Austin
Advisory Board
Wayne E. Franits, Professor, Department of Art and Music Histories, Syracuse University
Ann J. Adams, Associate Professor of the History of Art and Architecture, University of California, Santa Barbara