Professor of Art History Michael Orr combines his passion for both art and history in his scholarship on illuminated manuscripts. In studying medieval books, particularly “books of hours,” the most popular prayer books from the 14th and 15th centuries which are often adorned with elegantly hand-painted, highly personalized decorations, Orr provides artistic as well as historic insights on the practice of European Christianity in the late Middle Ages. His research looks to uncover both the function and purpose of the art he studies.
A member of the Lawrence faculty since 1989 and a past recipient of Lawrence’s Young Teacher Award and the Freshman Studies Teaching Prize, Orr co-authored his third book in the series, An Index of Images in English Manuscripts from the Time of Chaucer to Henry VIII. His most recent volume on illuminated manuscripts in New York City collections was published earlier this year. He previously co-wrote two volumes in the series based on collections at Oxford’s Bodleian Library.
In May, he presented the paper, “Learning to Read in the Hortus Conclusus: Images of the Education of the Virgin in Early Fifteenth-Century English Manuscripts,” at the International Congress on Medieval Studies at Western Michigan University. A long-time member of the editorial board of Journal of the Early Book Society, Orr collaborated with students in his art history course, The Illuminated Book, to organize an exhibition featuring three late medieval illuminated manuscripts on loan from a private collector as part of the Wriston Art Center Galleries Fall 2007 schedule.
Outside the campus borders, Orr this summer was elected president of the Board of Directors of Classical School, one of the 14 charter schools in the Appleton Area School District. A native of Beaconsfield, England, he serves as faculty advisor to the Lawrence crew team, and is an avid triathlete. He competed in the Wisconsin Ironman and was the first-place finisher in his age group in the 2007 Waupaca Triathlon.
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