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Free museum and library in London and online. Explore the past, present and future of health with us. Do ask questions, comment on posts and share your thoughts.
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Wellcome Collection is a free museum and library that aims to challenge how we all think and feel about health. Our online content aims to create opportunities for people to make connections between science, medicine, life and art. We want to spark conversation, inspire debate and encourage you to share your personal perspectives on human health and experience. But don’t be rude, hateful or insult

ing. Bullying of any kind isn’t allowed, and degrading comments about things like race, religion, culture, disability, sexual orientation and gender identity won’t be tolerated. We reserve the right to remove any material that we feel is inappropriate and we will ban individuals who persistently ignore these rules. If you notice any inappropriate comments, send us a message or report directly to Facebook. Find out more about Wellcome Collection: wellcome.info/About-Us

11/09/2024

Martyr and dragon slayer, Saint George is venerated around the world.

A Greek soldier in the Roman army, St George was martyred for his Christian faith under Emperor Diocletian. Many centuries later the legend of him battling a dragon that had taken a princess as tribute emerged and the image of St George slaying it with his lance has become a powerful icon since.

Today St George is the patron saint of England, Georgia as well as Aragon and Catalonia in Spain. He is also the patron saint of amongst many other things: shepherds, soldiers and those suffering from syphilis. He is also particularly venerated in Bulgaria, Rio de Janeiro and the Christians of the Near East.

[Alt Text: A dark soulful portrait of a man with black hair in armour. He gazes off to his left while his hands lay over each other on the hilt of a sword.]

Saint George holding his sword. Etching by P.A. Rajon after E.J. Gregory, ca. 1880.

Reference: 574605i

10/09/2024

When Jason Wilsher-Mills became paralysed in childhood, he found himself ‘living inside his head’. Discovering art - in the form of learning to paint with his mouth - changed that, and changed his life: finally, he had a way to bring his wild imagination out into the world.

His exhibition, Jason and the Adventure of 254, is open now at Wellcome Collection.

Find out more here: wellcome.info/jason-wilsher-mills

Alt text: This video shows some of Jason’s surreal, luminously colourful artworks in our gallery, including a diorama titled ‘Painting With My Mouth’.

09/09/2024

Slow down there, Lewis Hamilton.

🚗

[Alt text: We're looking at a poster telling viewers to "Obey the speed limit". A speedometer is visible in the foreground, with "30" highlighted in red, and connected to a black-and-white speed limit sign. In the background, there is a shadowy, silhouette of a man in a hat driving a car.]

Credit: A man, seen in silhouette wearing a hat, driving a car, the speedometer of which is going over the 30 miles per hour mark which is in the form of a road sign indicating the speed limit. Colour lithograph after Pat Keely, 1947. Wellcome Collection. Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

06/09/2024

Voyage

Dermatillomania (otherwise known as skin-picking disorder) is a mental health condition that causes somebody to compulsively pick at their skin until it bleeds.

Cartoonist Mads Horwath takes an honest, humorous look at the disorder in a new series intended to reduce shame.

New comics by Mads are published every Friday on our website at wellcome.info/mads-horwath

[Alt text

Image 1
Panel 1 of a 9 panel comic. A tiny spacecraft the size of blood cells races through the arteries of a human body. A voice from inside states "Now entering the facial arteries on way to the prefrontal cortex"

Image 2
In panel 2 we go inside the spacecraft and see the pilot and crew sat at their controls. The pilot shouts to a crew member "Hey, pay attention. The sooner we get to the subject's cortex, the sooner we can fix their neurotransmitters."

Image 3
In panel 3 we switch to looking in through the craft's windows from the outside. The crew member mutters "All this just to cure someone of compulsive skin picking?"

Image 4
In panel 4, back inside the craft, the pilot replies "It's not ideal but it's a simple mission. Fix their cortex, cure them of skin picking compulsion."

Image 5
In panel 5 the craft start to shake vigorously, the crew looks anxiously out of the windows, the pilot asking "what is that..."

Image 6
In panel 6 the craft starts to break up and the crew begins to get sucked out into the surrounding giant red blood cells.

Image 7
In panel 7, the crew desperately tries to survive, reaching out for each other. "Hold on!" cries one crew member, arm outstretched.

Image 8
In panel 8 we see the whole craft broken apart, a crew member shouts "what is happening?" as they float away in the blood stream.

Image 9
In panel 9 we switch to outside the body to a person looking in the mirror quietly picking at their cheek creating a red mark and line of dripping blood.]

05/09/2024

When dark magic looks like modernist art: these illustrations show four 'sigils', signs used in the invocation of demons or spirits. They come from a 19th century manuscript held in our collection which draws on an occult text originating in Renaissance Italy, itself derived from even more ancient sources. The figures show:

1. The sign of Bael, a demon who appears in diverse shapes, sometimes in many forms at once, and has the power to make mortals invisible with his rasping voice.

2. The sign of Phenex, a spirit exiled from heaven for 1200 years, who "appears with a child's voice to sing sweet notes before the exorcist". The text warns us not to listen for too long.

3. The sign of Vassago, a demon with the power "to discover all things hid or lost".

4. The sign of Gaap, a demon who can "cause love and hatred" and, if asked by his summoner, will "answer truly and perfectly of all things past, present and to come."

Alt text: These four slides show the sigils - complex rune-like characters - traced faintly on watercolour washes: Bael and Gaap are in blue, Phenex in yellow, and Vassago in green.

Credit: Pseudo-Solomon, Date: c. 1835. Reference: MS.4665. Wellcome Collection

04/09/2024

How did this statue of a Brown Dog in Battersea lead to riots and divide the nation?

Vivisection, the dissection of live animals, was a fiercely controversial subject in early 20th Century Britain. In 1903 two Swedish feminists and anti-vivisection activists Lizzy Lind af Hageby and Leisa Schartau accused prominent physiologist William Bayliss of dissecting a dog that was inadequately anesthetized before a class of 60 medical students.

Bayliss sued for libel and won but the situation escalated further when anti-vivisectionist Anna Louisa Woodward had a memorial to the Brown Dog erected at Latchmere Recreation Ground at Battersea. The memorial read:

“In Memory of the Brown Terrier Dog Done to Death in the Laboratories of University College in February 1903 after having endured Vivisection extending over more than Two Months…Men and Women of England how long shall these Things be?”

Offended medical students began ad hoc assaults on the statue and on suffragette meetings, growing into organised attempts involving thousands to destroy it. On the other side sympathy for the brown dog forged an alliance of Battersea locals, trade unionists and suffragettes who, along with the police, defended the statue.

In the end it was the cost of the statue’s continuous police guard which doomed the bronze dog, for when a new conservative council was elected it was whisked away at night and reportedly melted down.

However in 1985 a new statue of the brown dog was forged and stands today in Battersea Park in memory of that little brown dog.

[Alt Text: A monument with a bronze statue of the brown dog sitting proudly on top. It has a rim for a water fountain for humans and a lower fountain near the base for dogs and other animals. In the background are various British Victorian buildings.]

Image from the archives of The Physiological Society. Explore more by searching “brown dog” on our catalogue.

https://wellcomecollection.org/works/pa2vqm5m

Reference: SA/PHY/Z/4/9/108

https://wellcomecollection.org/works/m3k9ak3d

03/09/2024

What is it about scraps and fragments that make them so magical? Here, a piece torn from a 17th century manuscript gives us a glimpse of a portrait: one downcast eye, a broad nose, half a moustache. Nothing much - but the effect is like looking in one of those shards of glass in storybooks which act as portals to another world. Museums - and our own collections - are full of these portals. Where will they take you?

Alt text: The face described is pictured on a torn and fraying piece of 17th century paper, mottled like skin and set against a black background.

Credit: Arzneibuch. MS.990. Public Domain Mark. Source: Wellcome Collection.

30/08/2024

One of the most common questions we're asked here at Wellcome Collection is "Do you have any pictures of rabbits?"*

Yes, yes we do.

Alt text:

1. This beautiful study of rabbit faces perfectly captures their characteristic quivering hyper-alertness with its delicate, trembling outlines.
2. This astonishing painting shows Hamida Banu Begum, empress consort of the 16th century Mughal emperor Humayun, who ruled over a vast area of Asia. The beautiful Hamida is splendidly adorned and holds a rabbit to her chest tenderly in her crossed arms as if it were a kind of external heart. Very mindful, very demure.
3. This Japanese colour woodcut shows a family of chickens in traditional dress welcoming a rabbit dressed in a Western-style overcoat and chequered scarf, uncannily similar in style to the 1970s Dr Who.
4. This leaping bunny is part of a beautifully illustrated book of flora and fauna from the mid 13th century.
5. This 19th century rabbit in traditional Japanese dress is pictured against exceptionally groovy green and blue patterned bedclothes. She holds a tiny baby rabbit who peeks up from under the covers.

Credits:

1. Rabbits. Gouache, 18--. Date: [between 1800 and 1899] Reference: 727239i
2. Badshah Humayun's Begum holding a rabbit. Gouache painting by an Indian painter. Date: [between 1800 and 1899?] Reference: 579310i
3. A chicken family in traditional Japanese dress entertain a rabbit in western dress: new year ornaments hang from the top left. Colour woodcut, 1870s.
Date: [between 1870 and 1879] Reference: 37798i
4. Herbal, Musa, Antonius Date: Mid 13th Century. Reference: MS.573
5. A rabbit mother, having given birth to twins, lies in bed; a hen midwife presents her with the second baby, while a fish (?) looks on. Colour woodcut, ca. 1870.
Date: 1870? Reference: 564959i

*a scandalously uncommon question.

29/08/2024

However bad your week is going, you can be grateful you aren’t locked in a giant burning wicker man being sacrificed to sate the dark appetites of hungry pagan gods.

This nightmarish eighteenth century etching depicts a supposed Anglo-Saxon tradition of burning prisoners of war in giant wicker men.

This imagery was made famous in the seminal 1973 folk horror film ‘The Wicker Man’ in which a policeman is lured to a remote Scottish island to investigate a young girl’s disappearance. In the final moments of the film it is revealed as a ruse to lure him to be sacrificed in a giant wicker man. The film was also infamously re-made in 2006 starring Nicolas Cage.

The original evidence for this practice seems to have come, via a book by Aylett Sammes, from the writings of Julius Caesar. However the information seems to have been slightly confused at some point, as both Caesar and Sammes attributed this practice to the celtic Gauls sacrificing criminals rather than the Anglo-Saxons burning captured enemy soldiers.

Even today the emotional power of burning a giant effigy is reproduced in events like Burning Man festival in the Nevada desert.

Reference: 11520i

Explore more here: https://wellcome.info/WickerMan

[Alt Text: A giant wicker man with the faces and limbs of those imprisoned within visible. The head of the wicker man is incongruously realistic. At the feet a man stokes bundles of wood while another closes the door located on the upper leg, sealing the fate of those within.]

28/08/2024

How did the Paralympic Games begin?

The event originated as the Stoke Mandeville Games, named for the hospital in England where they were founded under the initiative of Dr Ludwig Guttmann. Guttmann was a Jewish neurologist who came to England as a refugee from persecution in N**i Germany. Before he escaped that regime, he spared dozens of Jewish people from detainment by admitting them to his hospital, sometimes inventing diagnoses on the spot in front of N**i authorities. We hold his archive here in our collection, and these wonderful photos of the 1964 Tokyo games are part of that inheritance.

Read more about Guttmann and the history of disability sport on our website: https://wellcome.info/paralympics.

Alt text: These colour photographs show athletes competing in various events of the games (unfortunately their names are mostly not recorded in our catalogue). They show: an athlete in a wheelchair during a track event, his face strained with effort as the crowd behind him becomes a blur; a disabled runner in white athletics kit; a group of athletes in wheelchairs racing against each other neck and neck; some highly-focussed competitors in a wheelchair archery event; another athlete in a wheelchair racing on the track; and a scene away from competition with a laughing man in a wheelchair giving the V-sign to the camera.

Credit: Photograph album of Paralympic Games, Tokyo, 1964
Date: 1964-1975
Reference: PP/GUT/C.2
Guttmann, Sir Ludwig (1899-1980)

27/08/2024

Who decides what ‘disabled’ means? Artist Jason Wilsher-Mills’ work draws on the social model of disability - the idea that society disables us by not accommodating for our different needs.

His exhibition, open now at Wellcome Collection, shows us a world where the only limits are those of our imagination.

Find out more here: wellcome.info/jason-wilsher-mills

Alt text: A video showing Jason exploring his exhibition and looking at some of the colourful, surreal installations he designed for the space.

23/08/2024

Workers during the construction of the Panama Canal, 1910.

The US-administrated building of the canal led to the deaths of many thousands of workers, the overwhelming majority of them labourers from the Caribbean.

Today marks the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition. The people in these photos were not enslaved, but today we remember them too, along with everyone subject to exploitation, forced labour and unsafe or inequitable working conditions.

See more of the photographs from the building of the Panama Canal we hold in our collection on our website: https://wellcome.info/panama

Alt text: These two early 20th century photographs from our collection show Carribean labourers working on sanitation measures as part of the construction of the canal. The first shows a man spraying larvicide into a ditch in an attempt to limit mosquito populations. The second shows two men burning grass as part of the same programme of measures against malarial infection.

Credits:

1. Miraflores, the Panama Canal Zone: a West Indian man sprays larvicide into a ditch as part of a mosquito control programme implemented during the construction of the Panama Canal. Date: 1910. Reference: 565938i

2. Miraflores, the Panama Canal Zone: rising smoke as two West Indian men burn grass away from the side of a ditch as part of a mosquito control programme implemented during the construction of the Panama Canal. Date: 1910. Reference: 565940i

22/08/2024

Unlucky in love? Simply copy this symbol in the hour of Venus (♀) on a Friday - at dawn, sunset, or precisely two thirds between them - and you can evoke love in whomsoever you wish. As the figure instructs, don't forget to put you and your crush's name in the middle.💘

This magical sign is from an astrological manuscript in our collection written in the early 19th century, mostly copied from older works of occult knowledge. The accompanying text gives a moving, desperate prayer for the desired person to "burn in love in his whole Heart + Soul Mind Body Affections and Spirit both with me and towards me and my Person, yea even from this present Hour to the Hour of my Death, so that I may now immediately most completely have and most fully obtain my whole Love and Affection from him and most full and complete Desires of him. And also that he do always continually love me and daily bear unto me an unspeakable Love".

You can view the entire manuscript for free on our website: wellcome.info/lovecharm

Alt text: The image shows a complicated circular sigil drawn in a charming freehand, full of small symbols such as crescent moons, astrological signs, and arrow-shot hearts. Its concentric circles are nested inside the heart-centre of a simply-drawn, kindly figure, perhaps one of angels whose names and signs appear in the symbol. The whole thing would make an excellent tattoo.

Credit: Parkins, John Date: 1797-1829. Reference: MS.3770

21/08/2024

Do you fantasise about giving up work? For the rest of your life, just eating, drinking and making merry?

Medieval peasants dreamt the same dream, they even gave it a name: the land of Cockaigne. A beautiful utopia where roast poultry rains from the sky, rivers of Spanish wine flow through land of marzipan, cakes flower from plants and diamonds rain down on mountains of gold and hills of sugar.

The land’s laziest resident, Mr. Panigon rides a boar. His supreme sloth has elevated him to lord of this land of ease. Guards keep the population safe by dragging to prison any vile individuals sick enough to actually enjoy work.

In contrast to a reality of hardship and a Christian ideal of asceticism, Cockaigne presents a heaven of sensual excess where no one suffers and bellies are never less than absolutely full.

This is an Italian engraving with the reference 37642i

Explore more: https://wellcome.info/Cockaigne

[Alt Text:

Image 1: A portly man with a big yellow goblet and banner emblazoned with food and drink rides a boar with attendants behind. This is lord of the land, Mr Panigon who drinks from a large golden goblet from atop a boar.

Image 2: Five men crudely coloured in blue and red clothing sit at a round table while cooked birds rain down from clouds aimed directly for their plates.

Image 3: A kneeling man sups deeps from a fountain pouring limitless wine while two others fish for food erupting from a volcano.

Image 4: Pure golden light pours down and rains diamonds on geological ranges of gold and mountainous piles of sugar, ships packed full of sausages and trees bear pre-prepared fruit cocktails. A man harvests food directly from the ground.

Image 5: Surrounded by a moat of greek wine is the only unappealing place in this blessed land. A grey turreted prison, intended to keep the population safe from those anyone who likes hard work.

Image 6: The full beautiful glory of Cockaigne, food, drink and music in endless supply forever.]

20/08/2024

Is it time for you to get your check up sexuel?

If it is, make like this gentleman here and ride le 'Carnet de Santé' to le check up. Just, make sure you come fully clothed.

[Alt text: We're looking at an illustration of a naked man riding astride his 'Carnet de Santé', a booklet used in France to keep track of one's personal health information. He is surrounded by clouds in the sky, and contained within each cloud are other naked people, presumably those he's had some kind of sexual relationship with.]

Credit: Check up sexuel : carnet de santé / Ligne Azur. In copyright. Source: Wellcome Collection.

https://wellcomecollection.org/works/t7x3a2jq

19/08/2024

When you can’t afford a car, the train is too crowded and you want a commute with a view…

[Alt Text: A hot air balloon instead of a basket has a horse with a man on tied to the bottom of it. The man looks enthused and is waving his hat in the air while the horse looks slightly perturbed about being high up in the clouds.

Reference: A man on horseback suspended from a hot-air balloon. Lithograph after Gustave Janet. 36299i https://wellcomecollection.org/works/ttgjtz79

16/08/2024

Save the world: It’s harder than you’d think.

Dermatillomania (otherwise known as skin-picking disorder) is a mental health condition that causes somebody to compulsively pick at their skin until it bleeds.

Cartoonist Mads Horwath () takes an honest, humorous look at the disorder in a new series intended to reduce shame.

New comics by Mads are published every Friday on our website at wellcome.info/mads-horwath

Alt Text:

Asteroid1
Panel 1 of a 7 panel comic. Three people are gathered around a crisis table on which there is a Rubik’s cube and a spaceship model. In the background is a large screen showing the trajectory of an asteroid called Didymos as it heads towards earth. One of the characters with black hair says to others “With not much time left, we need to figure out how to stop this asteroid from hitting earth.”

Asteroid2
In panel 2 someone races through a door into the room, clutching a rolled up paper, arm outstretched. They cry “I know how to stop the asteroid!”

Asteroid3
In panel 3 the same person unrolls the papers onto the table and pointing at them says “It seems impossible but the only way to truly stop the asteroid...”

Asteroid4
In panel 4 the person turns to the character with black hair and starkly says “...is stop picking your skin”

Asteroid5
In panel 5 all the people in the crisis room are silent, turned to look and the black haired character.

Asteroid6
In panel 6 the person with black hair shakily says “Uhhhh...should be no problem.”

Asteroid7
In panel 7 the asteroid impacts with the earth in a great explosion.

15/08/2024

Today we celebrate the art of Raja Ravi Varma (1848 – 1906) who successfully married Western styles and techniques to the subjects of Indian epic stories and Hindu religion.

Not only did he pioneer a new form of art but by setting up a lithographic printing press, he helped to spread his artwork to people who could not usually afford it.

Explore more here: https://wellcome.info/RaviVarma

[Alt Text:

Image 1: A seated woman in a red and yellow sari plays a sitar next to a garden pond in a verdant courtyard.

Reference: 583015i

Image 2: The four armed, blue skinned Goddess of creation, time and death, known as Kali. She holds up a severed head in one hand and a sword in another. Around her neck is a garland of severed heads and she wears a skirt of butchered arms.

This scene depicts Kali having just inflicted great slaughter upon an army of demons. She has become drunk on demon blood and her dance of destruction threatens to destroy the entirety of the universe. Alarmed and unable to soothe her, her husband the god Shiva threw himself under her feet. Horrified by his suffering she was brought back to her senses and the universe was saved.

Reference: 26616i

Image 3: Reference: On a great throne on Mount Kailas are three gods. On the left is Ganesh, the elephant god, in the centre is the god Shiva and on the right is the goddess Parvati. At their feet is the sacred white bull Nandi.

Reference: 26685i]

14/08/2024

Bold and vibrant, the Kalighat style of art is a striking form of 19th Century Indian art. It depicts both the epic exploits of Gods and mythological figures but also the everyday and domestic.

Named as such due to being created by artists around the Kalighat Kali Temple in Calcutta [now Kolkata] in West Bengal.

Explore more here: https://wellcome.info/kalighat

[Alt Text:

A series of vividly coloured paintings.

Image 1: It’s not a Pokemon, it’s a yellow cat with big black spots munching on a lobster. 582951i

Image 2: A courtesan in a white sari seems to be removing the veil from her head. She is wearing elaborate jewelry including gold bangles and a nose hoop, she is looking away to her left. 583059i

Image 3: A holy man sitting in the Buddha pose before two seated tigers who both look surprisingly affable. A white dove stands nearby. 35366i

Image 4: Kali, Goddess of destruction, death and rebirth stares straight ahead with intense red eyes. She has four arms, one of which is grasping the severed head of a demon.Her long tongue extends half way down her body. 26154i

Image 5: A seated courtesan plays a sitar. She is wearing a green top and red trousers. 26963i

Image 6: A large yellow winged deity called Garuda carries on its back two blue skinned Gods, possibly Krishna and Balarama. 26107i

Image 7: A hoopoe, a green bird on a branch. 26901i]

13/08/2024

Top 6 things to shrink and keep prisoner in an alchemical flask:

1. Fox
2. Raven
3. Boyfriend
4. Dove
5. Ghost of a dove
6. Ex-boyfriend

Alt text: These watercolour drawings come from a 17th century alchemical manuscript, written in German, which introduces itself as 'The Light of All Lights'. The pictures are symbolic representations of the mysterious alchemical processes it describes, and show creatures and figures inside glassware flasks (the labels above are not from the text: 'boyfriend' may show a woman in pregnancy). They have beautiful details, like the delicately drawn shadows of the fox and raven-like creatures in slides 1 and 2.

Credit: Winandus de Ruffo Clipeo (& others), Date: c. 1625, Reference: MS.800

12/08/2024

Cartoons ridiculing fears around Edward Jenner’s cowpox-derived smallpox vaccine.

Intrigued by the folklore that those who caught the relatively mild disease of cowpox would not be afflicted by the deadly smallpox, Jenner put this to a scientific test. Taking a cowpox sample from dairymaid Sarah Nelme who had caught it from her cow Blossom, Jenner gave it to the eight-year old son of his gardener, a boy named James Phipps. After a week of mild illness the boy emerged immune from smallpox for life.

Despite this triumph, there was backlash from those like Dr Benjamin Moseley who claimed it could cause insanity among other things. These satirical cartoons hit back on these fears which turned out to be very overblown.

Edward Jenner’s discovery eventually led to the announcement in 1980 that smallpox, possibly the greatest killer in human history, had been eradicated.

Also loving the home decor choices in the second image.

[Alt Text:

Image 1: A vibrant and typically chaotic Georgian print. Edward Jenner is pricking a apprehensive woman’s arm with the cowpox virus to immunise her to smallpox. Behind her men and women suffer grotesque transformations: one is growing horns while the rest have miniature bulls erupt from their bodies, from their noses, their ears and even their buttocks.

Image 2:

A young woman holds a person who has seemingly been transformed by the cowpox vaccine into a tiny cow apart from their smiling human head. A seated woman looks understandably shocked. Just to add to the weirdness, their choice of home decor is unusual, featuring a framed picture of someone being hanged at the gallows.]

Reference:

Image 1: Edward Jenner vaccinating patients in the Smallpox and Inoculation Hospital at St. Pancras: the patients develop features of cows. Coloured etching by J. Gillray, 1802. 11752i

Image 2: Vaccinae vindicia; or, defence of vaccination: containing a refutation of the cases, and reasonings on the same, in Dr. Rowley's and Dr. Moseley's late extraordinary pamphlets against vaccination; Robert John Thornton, 1806. EPB/B/51312

09/08/2024

No solution

Dermatillomania (otherwise known as skin-picking disorder) is a mental health condition that causes somebody to compulsively pick at their skin until it bleeds.

Cartoonist Mads Horwath takes an honest, humorous look at the disorder in a new series intended to reduce shame.

New comics by Mads are published every Friday on our website at wellcome.info/mads-horwath

[Alt text: A single panel comic. A patient lies on a psychiatrists couch looking down at their raised arms. A moustached psychiatrist sits beside them, pen and paper in hand. The patient’s arms and face are raw pink and they have no lips, eyelids or nose. They are saying “I picked off my skin completely, but I’m still anxious all the time!”.]

08/08/2024

This is how the world should be...

This postcard comes from the collection of Melitta Rene Schmideberg-Klein (1904 - 1983). Born in modern day Slovakia, she followed in the footsteps of her mother, psychoanalyst Melanie Klein. She attended Berlin Psychoanalytic Institute and married another psychoanalyst Walter Schmideberg. Due to the rising anti-semitism in Germany in the 1930s, her and her family moved to London.

Reference: 44394i

Find out more here: https://wellcome.info/SKFamily

[Alt text: An early 20th Century classroom with a class full of clothed cats. A teacher in a skirt plays the violin surrounded by a choir of singing kittens. One kitten reads a book on the pupil benches. Another adult cat wearing a coat and holding a hat and umbrella enters the room.]

07/08/2024

Ready to hit the beach 😎

Alt text: this anatomical illustration from a mid-15th century manuscript shows a n**e from behind with parts of the body labelled.

Credit: Pseudo-Galen, Anatomia. Public Domain Mark. Reference: MS.290. Source: Wellcome Collection.

06/08/2024

Happy Birthday to Alexander Fleming!

If antibiotics have ever helped you get better from an illness then you can give your thanks to this Scottish scientist who was born 143 years ago today.

Watch the full 12 minute film from 1964 here: https://wellcome.info/FlemingFilm

[Alt Text:

We’re watching a reel cut down from a 1964 film. It starts panning across a colourful set of tubes and vials with scientists gazing into microscopes. We then move to black and white archive footage and photographs of London and our hero, Alexander Fleming in the 1920s.

Then a blue tinted re-creation of the discovery of penicillin by an older Alexander Fleming who is handling petri dishes and test tubes.

Hordes of tiny vials of penicillin hurry along a factory conveyor belt. Arrows expand out from London on a map as antibiotics spread around the world followed by crowd scenes from around the globe.]

05/08/2024

New Olympic sports ideas:

1. Catching wind with a net
2. Putting out a fire with your mouth
3. Rhythmic mineral extraction
4. Mournful queening
5. Catching a fire with a net
6. Freestyle depressive pickaxe
7. Artistic floating leaf arrangement (points for fashion)
8. Ceramics
9. Whatever this guy is doing

Alt text: These 9 illustrations come from the Livre des simples médecines, a 15th century French adaptation of an earlier Latin pharmaceutical treatise on the therapeutic use of plants, minerals and animal products. The illustrations mostly show quaintly dressed 15th century Europeans engaged in the extraction or processing of these materials: in slide 1, someone sieves a river for aloe leaves, and in slide 5, collects sulphur from some flaming pits.

Credits: Livre des simples médecines, in French. Public Domain Mark. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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Videos

When Jason Wilsher-Mills became paralysed in childhood, he found himself ‘living inside his head’. Discovering art - in the form of learning to paint with his mouth - changed that, and changed his life: finally, he had a way to bring his wild imagination out into the world. His exhibition, Jason and the Adventure of 254, is open now at Wellcome Collection. Find out more here: wellcome.info/jason-wilsher-mills Alt text: This video shows some of Jason’s surreal, luminously colourful artworks in our gallery, including a diorama titled ‘Painting With My Mouth’.

Alexander Fleming

Happy Birthday to Alexander Fleming! If antibiotics have ever helped you get better from an illness then you can give your thanks to this Scottish scientist who was born 143 years ago today. Watch the full 12 minute film from 1964 here: https://wellcome.info/FlemingFilm [Alt Text: We’re watching a reel cut down from a 1964 film. It starts panning across a colourful set of tubes and vials with scientists gazing into microscopes. We then move to black and white archive footage and photographs of London and our hero, Alexander Fleming in the 1920s. Then a blue tinted re-creation of the discovery of penicillin by an older Alexander Fleming who is handling petri dishes and test tubes. Hordes of tiny vials of penicillin hurry along a factory conveyor belt. Arrows expand out from London on a map as antibiotics spread around the world followed by crowd scenes from around the globe.]

54 minutes past 2pm on the first day of August in 1980, Jason Wilsher-Mills's life changed forever

One moment can change the direction of your life forever. For artist Jason Wilsher-Mills, that moment was exactly 44 years ago today. 54 minutes past 2pm on the first day of August in 1980. For athlete Sebastian Coe, it was the minute that he won gold and glory in the 1500-metre race at the Moscow Olympics. For Jason Wilsher-Mills, the artist behind our latest exhibition - ‘Jason and the Adventure of 254’ - it was the moment his parents were told of his autoimmune condition which could have killed him but instead set him on the path of becoming an artist 🎨 Find out more about Wilsher-Mills’s exhibition: wellcome.info/jason-wilsher-mills [Alt Text: We’re watching a reel narrated by Jason Wilsher-Mills touring his 3D installations that tell the story of his childhood illness. Starting with the largest one, a sculpture of Jason, vibrantly coloured and in a Union flag mask and purple y-fronts. Little green army men clamber over him.]

Calliper Boots (2024) by Jason Wilsher-Mills

Ever wanted to take a dull, grey or offensive part of your life, shape it, remake it and splash it with colour? 🎨 Well that’s what artist Jason Wilsher-Mills has done with the orthopaedic calliper boots that he had to wear as a child for medical reasons. Now they’re eye-popping psychedelic Doc Martens, reclaiming with oodles of colour a positive vision of how Jason feels about his disability. Find out more here Jason Wilsher Mills's exhibition, open until January 2025: wellcome.info/jason-wilsher-mills [Alt Text: We’re watching a reel that circles around Jason Wilsher-Mills’ Calliper Boots sculptures. They’re covered all over in vividly coloured designs which are both abstract and intricate. The main part of the boot is coloured with a Union flag design while the heel and toe are covered in blobs, dots and spiky lines in shades of green, yellow, blue and red. We also see Jason Wilsher-Mills gazing at his sculpture as well as behind the scenes footage of a woman painting the legs, in the factory, before they went on display in the exhibition.]

Sometimes it's polite to introduce yourself, right? For anyone new here, we're Wellcome Collection: a free museum and library in London. We believe everyone's experience of health matters, and explore the past, present and future of health through our collections, exhibitions, events and online. Find us near Euston station, London Visit us online at wellcomecollection.org And... see you here soon? 👋 [Alt text: a 60-second whiz through our building with one of our lovely Visitor Experience assistants who shows us her favourite parts of the museum. We begin in the Reading Room, head to the Being Human gallery, dip into 'Jason and the Adventure of 254', before looking at the access offers which includes BSL, sensory equipment, step-free access, tactile lines, accessible loos, Braille gallery descriptions and tactile objects.]

Meet Jason Wilsher-Mills, the artist behind Jason and the Adventure of 254

Jason Wilsher-Mills takes us back in time to tell the story of how he became an artist 🎨 Our exhibition space has become a ward in a Wakefield hospital at the dawn of the 1980s. As a child, Jason’s immune system began attacking itself which paralysed him for several years. Through Jason’s brilliantly creative mind’s eye, these formative experiences are reimagined in bold colours and joyously grotesque cartoon designs. Join us on this exploration of disability, imagination and the power of art. Find out more here: wellcome.info/jason-wilsher-mills [Alt Text: A video reel that floats around our Jason Wilsher-Mill’s exhibition showing his various sculptures and 2D artworks, among them are small green army men carrying virus particles, vibrantly patterned Doc Martens and an Olympic runner with a TV for a head. It also shows footage of the immune system, snaps of Sebastian Coe at that famous race and sped up footage of Jason leafing through a sketch book full of his grotesque and wonderful designs.]

London’s longest-running inclusive club night comes to Wellcome Collection on 12th July. Book tickets at https://wellcome.info/BeautifulOctopusClub

When Jason Wilsher-Mills was 11, his life changed forever. A bout of chickenpox led to his immune system attacking itself, and he was paralysed from the neck down. The first year of his illness was spent in Ward D of Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield. In our new exhibition, Jason reimagines our gallery as a version of that 1980s hospital ward spectacularly transformed by memory and creativity. 'Jason and the Adventure of 254' explores childhood, disability and imagination through monumental sculptures, vivid illustrations, interactive dioramas, and more. It’s immersive, accessible, joyful, and free - and it’s for everyone. Plan your visit at wellcome.info/jason-wilsher-mills, and if there’s anything you want to talk through before you visit, please send us a DM 📮 Alt text: This reel opens with scenes from outside Wellcome Collection on Euston Road in London, showing the large banners announcing our new exhibition 'Jason and the Adventure of 254'. The video takes us through the museum into the spectacular, colourful gallery where Jason's artworks are on display. A monumental sculpture of a figure in a hospital bed lies in the centre of the room, with huge feet poking up towards the ceiling. The camera focuses in on details of vivid illustrations, surreal backlit dioramas, and an enormous pair of calliper boots decorated in psychedelic tones. A visitor interacts with the installations and displays, explaining that gentle touching of the artworks is encouraged, and audio, BSL and large-print guides are shown on the gallery's wall. Music Credit: Pop Summer Music by TimTaj

These 'chrono-photographs' of animal movement were made by Eadweard Muybridge in 1887. That's one year before what's thought to be the oldest surviving film. The writer Rebecca Solnit described Muybridge's work as spanning the gap of time between our own accelerated world and "a world in which human beings and their voices and knowledge were no faster than the animals and water and wind that surrounded them." [Alt text: a reel animating early black-and-white photographic studies of animals, showing a pig running, one deer leaping alongside another, a stag trotting, and a bird in flight.] Credits: 1. A pig running. Collotype after Eadweard Muybridge, 1887. 2. Two deer jumping. Collotype after Eadweard Muybridge, 1887. 3. A deer buck running. Collotype after Eadweard Muybridge, 1887. 4. A parrot flying. Collotype after Eadweard Muybridge, 1887. Public Domain Mark, Wellcome Collection

Our free exhibition The Cult of Beauty closes on Sunday 28th April. Don't miss your last chance to see this exploration of beauty through time and across cultures. [Alt text: a video showing details from the Virgin of Guadalupe, an 18th century painting from the exhibition which shows the Madonna and child in white robes adorned with gold and floral patterning.]

When we feel anxious, disconnected or alienated from our bodies, we can’t appreciate the beauty of what they can do. As Emma Dabiri puts it: “The greater connection I have to my body the more pleasure I can take in it.” To find out more about how you can reconnect with your own joyful, disobedient body, grab a copy of Emma’s book in our shop, online or at your nearest book store: wellcome.info/Buy-Disobedient-Bodies [Alt text: This video shows Emma Dabiri, Irish-Nigerian author of Disobedient Bodies which was published by us in 2023, sitting on our Reading Room’s iconic red stairs. Her hair is braided and long, and she wears a pink top and black skirt].

Social media has facilitated a huge increase in representation, yet so many young people still feel under pressure when it comes to their appearances. That's why it’s never been more important to reclaim beauty for ourselves, says Emma Dabiri. In her new book, Disobedient Bodies, Dabiri encourages unruliness, exploring the ways in which we can 'do' beauty differently. Through personal essays, she gives alternative ways of seeing beauty, drawing on other cultures, worldviews, times and places that can help us find the inherent joy in our disobedient bodies. Buy Emma Dabiri's book here: wellcome.info/Buy-Disobedient-Bodies [Alt text: Irish-Nigerian author Emma Dabiri is sitting on a step of the Reading Room’s red-carpeted staircase in Wellcome Collection. As she discusses the differences between the sort of bodies that populated the media in her youth and the huge increase in representation generated by social media, we see B-roll footage featuring artworks in the Cult of Beauty exhibition appear on screen. The first installation we see is An Algorithmic Gaze II by Cecilie Waagner Falkenstrom – a video work of a naked body that morphs into different shapes, sizes, skin colours, and genders. This animation has been created using artificial intelligence, an algorithm trained on datasets of human models. The next artwork is a painting called Steam, The Bully Pulpit. It forms part of a series where US artist Haley Morris-Cafiero turns hate comments she’s received online into staged photographic works. In this particular work, she is seen taking a selfie in a bathroom mirror with prosthetics moulded to her nose and torso, to give her the appearance of a larger nose and six pack. Written in the fogged mirror are the words: “You’re fat and gross. Your arms make me want to puke.”]

What did Renaissance women do for skincare? Multi-step beauty routines may sound modern, but their origins go back centuries, to when women experimented with a range of ingredients - including mutton fat. What’s more, it actually smells kind of nice! This work is in The Cult of Beauty exhibition, open until 28 April and free to visit. For more info, head to Wellcome.info/cult-of-beauty Watch the full video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85qX5O-ylkk&t=75s [Alt text: Philosophy Tube founder Abigail Thorn is in the Cult of Beauty exhibition, where she walks into the Beauty Sensorium – a large glass installation housed in an enclosed space. The room itself is covered in a richly detailed wallpaper, a collage of images taken from historic paintings and prints, containing scenes of women in Renaissance apothecaries and home kitchens. The installation itself is made up of glass vessels shaped like bulbs and gourds, lit from within, oozing and bubbling with liquids of varying viscosities.]

Hair is not just hair. There’s so much more to it than that. The hairstyles captured in this video don’t just tell us about the wearer’s personal preferences, or what they find beautiful. They can also speak to their personal histories, their relationship status, their values and morals. Join @emmadabiri as she discusses the cultural significance of hair via the works of J.D. ‘Okhai Ojeikere, and the oft-forgotten part that pin-tail combs play in styling them. [Alt text: Irish-Nigerian author Emma Dabiri is sitting on a sofa in Wellcome Collection’s Reading Room, in front of a red-carpeted staircase. She has a make-up case with her, and pulls out a pintail comb. As she goes on to talk about J.D. ‘Okhai Ojeikere’s work, B-roll imagery of his photographs appear on screen. Each of the black and white photographs shows the back of the head of a Black woman, her hair either threaded or braided into magnificent sculptural shapes. The first photo, Mkpuk Eba, shows a younger woman, her hair bound into 7 pompoms that stand up evenly around her head. The next photo, and perhaps the most complex hairstyle is subtitled Abebe. Here, from a centre parting down the back of the head the hair is braided in flat cornrows following the shape of the skull, up over the ears. Thicker braids, probably hair extensions, are coiled on the crown of the head and tumble down making a waterfall of thick black hair. In the last photo, Onile Gogoro Or Akaba, the hair is separated and coiled into about twelve uprights like dowels of wood. These are twisted into a circle at the top, making a crown of hair, standing proudly on the head of its owner. Many of these styles became known by their nicknames, which emerged from either the geographic area they came from, or from the natural and manmade forms they imitated including pineapples, crabs, suspension bridges or tower blocks.]

Now open - ‘Jason and the Adventure of 254’ 👀 A new exhibition at Wellcome Collection by the wonderful Jason Wilsher-Mills. Jason transforms our gallery with this colourful, hands-on installation exploring creativity, disability, and childhood memory. The exhibition features monumental sculptures, illustrations, interactive dioramas, and more. It’s immersive, accessible, and free - and it’s for everyone. Plan your visit at wellcome.info/jason-wilsher-mills, and if there’s anything you want to talk through before you visit, please send us a DM 📮 [Alt text: a video introducing the exhibition and showcasing some of the vibrantly colourful, playfully imagined characters that inhabit Jason Wilsher-Mills’ art. One of them points up at the symbols for wheelchair-access, audio-description, British Sign Language provision, and hearing loop services, all of which are available in the gallery. For more information on access at Wellcome Collection, visit our website.]

Abigail Thorn on 17th century attitudes to women’s beauty.

Does your beauty belong to someone else? Join Abigail Thorn who explores an etching from our collection, ‘Husbands bringing their ugly wives to the windmill to be transformed into beautiful ones’ and explains what it says about 17th century attitudes to women’s beauty. The Cult of Beauty is open until 28 April and is free to visit. For more info, head to Wellcome.info/cult-of-beauty Watch the full video with Abigail Thorn on YouTube: https://wellcome.info/43mdtr8 [Alt text: Philosophy Tube founder Abigail Thorn is in The Cult of Beauty exhibition at Wellcome Collection. She is dressed in a pin-striped suit and is pointing out details in the etching as she describes various details in it. It shows a man carrying an old lady on his shoulders up to a room inside a windmill, where women are somehow magically transformed to become younger and more beautiful versions of themselves before being shoved unceremoniously out of a hole at the back of the windmill.] Credit: Husbands bringing their ugly wives to a windmill, to be transformed into beautiful women, Paulus Fürst, 1650. Wellcome Collection.

Corsets weren’t just for women – they were also worn by some men too. This 19th century fashion trend was part of a wider phenomenon known as “dandyism”, a term used to describe certain men of that period. Broadly speaking, these men prized physical appearance, personal grooming, refined language and leisurely hobbies. However, it is thought that only a small minority of men took to the trend, as dandyism was perceived as being vain, and at odds with Victorian ideals of masculinity. Learn more about corsetry's unexpected history at The Cult of Beauty, our 5-star exhibition running until 28 April 🪄 https://wellcomecollection.org/exhibitions/ZJ1zCxAAACMAczPA [Alt text: We’re watching @bernadettebanner, YouTuber and dress historian, discuss a lesser-known aspect of corset history – male corsets. She’s sitting in Wellcome Collection’s Reading Room. And as she describes 19th century male shapewear, B-roll footage of etchings appear on screen. One shows two valets helping to tighten the waist of a young officer’s corset. The other shows a dandy and his two servants in a similar situation, except the corset wearer is also wearing shoulder pads – an accoutrement that helped to achieve the padded upper-body look that was popular among dandies at the time.]

Have you ever been made to feel guilty or silly for taking pride in your appearance? If you have, you’re not alone. People carry all sorts of associations when it comes to certain looks or beauty ideals – and it can sometimes have far-reaching conclusions. Join Emma Dabiri as she delves into what we got wrong about the Auxerre Goddess, and how our attitudes and assumptions around beauty may have played a part. The Auxerre Goddess is on display at our Cult of Beauty exhibition, on until 28 April. For more info, visit wellcome.info/cult-of-beauty Watch the full video with Emma Dabiri on YouTube: https://wellcome.info/48HfL5j [Alt text: Irish-Nigerian author Emma Dabiri is sitting on a sofa in Wellcome Collection’s Reading Room, in front of a red-carpeted staircase. She has a make-up case with her, and pulls out some red lipstick. As she goes on to describe the story that was constructed around the Auxerre Goddess, some B-roll footage appears showing a reproduction of the original statue discovered in a storage vault in Paris in the 1900s. It was initially presumed that this statue depicted a white woman with a “natural” look – i.e. without makeup. However, the next bit of B-roll shows the restored version of the Auxerre statue. This version, restored with the help of new technologies, has an olive complexion and is wearing dark eyeliner and bright red lipstick.] Credit: Auxerre Goddess, and Auxerre Goddess restored, original c.640 BC, Museum of Classical Archaeology, Cambridge

Q: You're living in Victorian times and it's time for a tea break – but how do you keep your moustache dry? A: Obviously you'd use a teacup with a moustache guard. Victorian ingenuity 🥸 If you’re London-based, come see a moustache guard in its real-life glory at The Cult of Beauty, our 5-star exhibition running until 28th April 2024 https://wellcome.info/cult-of-beauty And to find out more about the Victorian gentleman’s grooming routine, head to our YouTube for our full-length tutorial with Dominic Skinner, and watch him transform into the spitting image of his great great uncle, Thomas Hardy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBRPqbiZs6U&t=34s&ab_channel=WellcomeCollection [Video alt text: We see Dominic Skinner – makeup artist and judge on the BBC show Glow Up – seated on a stool against a blue background and drinking from a pink cup while a make-up artist preens his scalp] #TheCultofBeauty

Corsets can be extraordinarily comfortable

Corsets have gotten a bad rep over the years. From Titanic’s Rose DeWitt Bukater to Bridgerton’s Prudence Featherington, women have been shown in movies, books and TV shows getting stuffed into corsets and tight laced within an inch of their lives. But the truth is, a well-fitting corset *can* be extraordinarily comfortable. This is as true now as it was hundreds of years ago, when corsets were a staple in women’s wardrobes. Join Bernadette Banner for a 60-second lesson on the difference between functional corsetry, tight-lacing (and why the former won’t squish your organs) at our Cult of Beauty exhibition, open until 28 April. [Alt text: We’re watching Bernadette Banner, YouTuber and educational content creator, make a case for corsets. She’s standing in The Cult of Beauty – a temporary exhibition at Wellcome Collection – beside a glass case displaying a metal corset designed for orthopedic use from the 1800s. As Banner argues her case, footage of other historical items appear on screen – a portrait of Catherine de Medici, Queen of France (1547 - 1599), an advert for “magnetic” corsets, and an etching of a deathly figure over-lacing a woman’s corset.]

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WELLCOME COLLECTION

We are a free museum and library, located in central London, that aims to challenge how people think and feel about health.

Through exhibitions, collections, live programming, digital, broadcast and publishing, we create opportunities for people to think deeply about the connections between science, medicine, life and art. All our exhibitions and most of our events are free and open to everyone.

We are part of the Wellcome Trust, which exists to improve health by helping great ideas to thrive. We support researchers, we take on big health challenges, we campaign for better science, and we help everyone get involved with science and health research. We are a politically and financially independent foundation.