The Morgan Library & Museum announced the appointment of Dr. Joshua O’Driscoll as Melvin R. Seiden Curator and Department Head of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts, effective 2 March 2026. O’Driscoll joined the Morgan as Assistant Curator of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in 2015 and was promoted to Associate Curator in 2022.

In his new role, O’Driscoll will oversee the care, study, exhibition, and interpretation of one of the world’s most significant collections of illuminated manuscripts dating from the fifth through the sixteenth centuries. The collection began when Pierpont Morgan started acquiring medieval manuscripts in the late nineteenth century. It now includes some 1,300 manuscripts and papyri, with a focus on Western European illuminated manuscripts in Latin and vernacular languages, with French, Italian, English, German, Flemish, and Dutch works forming the largest groups. The collection also features a smaller but notable selection of Armenian, Syriac, Coptic, Ethiopian, Arabic, Persian, and Indian manuscripts.

O’Driscoll is currently co-curating Tarot! Renaissance Symbols, Modern Visions with Frank Trujillo and Claire Gilman, opening at the Morgan on 26 June 2026. His previous Morgan exhibitions include Sing a New Song: The Psalms in Medieval Art and Life (2025, co-curator with Roger Wieck, Deirdre Jackson, and Frederica Law Turner); The Book of Marvels: Imagining the Medieval World (2025); Imperial Splendor: The Art of the Book in the Holy Roman Empire (2021, co-curator with Jeffrey Hamburger); Beautiful Youths: Dandies from the Read Persian Album (2018); and Medieval Monsters: Terrors Aliens, Wonders (2018, co-curator with Asa Mittman and Sherry Lindquist). He is also the author, co-author, or editor of numerous publications, including the upcoming Tarot! publication accompanying the exhibition.

O’Driscoll graduated magna cum laude with a BS and BA from Florida State University and holds an MA in History of Art from Williams College and a PhD in History of Art from Harvard University. He has held research positions at the Bode Museum in Berlin, the British Library in London, and the Houghton Library at Harvard University. He has also worked with the CUNY Graduate Center to develop a graduate seminar based on the Morgan’s collection that introduced new generations of students to the study of illuminated manuscripts.