Mellon, Andrew William (1855–1937)
US financier who donated his art collection to found the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, in 1937. He was secretary of the Treasury 1921–32, pursuing tax-cutting policies.
| His son Paul Mellon was president of the National Gallery of Art 1963–79. He funded Yale University's Center for British Art, New Haven, Connecticut, and donated important works of art to both collections. |
| Born in Pittsburgh, Mellon attended the Western University of Pennsylvania and entered the family banking firm. Through farsighted investments and loans to the expanding steel and oil industries of Pennsylvania, Mellon became one of the wealthiest people in the USA. He founded the Mellon National Bank in 1902. In 1911 he founded the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research at Pittsburgh. He was appointed secretary of the Treasury by President Warren G Harding 1921 and held the post until 1932, under presidents Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover. |
