Wellcome Collection

Wellcome Collection 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.
(2683)

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

Ouch 😬 Surgery in the 16th century was no joke. These beautiful, excruciating illustrations come from a French handbook ...
07/02/2025

Ouch 😬 Surgery in the 16th century was no joke. These beautiful, excruciating illustrations come from a French handbook of surgical technique made in 1564 and held in our collection.

Alt text: The finely drawn and brightly painted illustrations show: a hand emerging from a purple cloud with the middle finger being clipped off at the knuckle with a set of pliers; a forearm resting on a red-pillow, bound by a kind of splint and showing an open fracture; a leg pierced through at the calf and thigh with sharp stakes; a grim anatomical picture of the neck and head; and an ominous handsaw with a red handle, golden frame and serrated blade.

Instrumenta chyrurgiae et icones anathomicae / Paré, Ambroise, 1510?-1590.
Date: 1564

Realising January is over / realising it's still only February. Alt text: This coloured engraving shows two portraits of...
06/02/2025

Realising January is over / realising it's still only February.

Alt text: This coloured engraving shows two portraits of a young woman, the first in good health, the second when gravely ill with cholera. On the left, her eyes are bright and her cheeks a hearty red; on the right, she is gaunt and her skin is tinged with blue.

Credit: A young woman of Vienna who died of cholera, depicted when healthy and four hours before death. Coloured stipple engraving. Wellcome Collection. Source: Wellcome Collection.

“I longed to arrest all beauty that came before me, and at length the longing has been satisfied”Some of the striking ph...
04/02/2025

“I longed to arrest all beauty that came before me, and at length the longing has been satisfied”

Some of the striking photographs of Victorian portraitist Julia Margaret Cameron. She only took up photography at the age of 48, after her daughter gave her a camera as a gift. She cleared out a chicken coop for a studio and turned her coal store into a dark room.

She would go on to pioneer the close-up, creating images drawn from fiction as well as portraying some of the greatest figures of her age.

Her soft focussed photographs, which contrasted to many other photographers of the day, often have a dreamy, spiritual feel to them. Her work received a great deal of hostile appraisal when first exhibited but in the decades following her death it has been re-visited and celebrated.

[Alt text:

The black and white photographs of Julia Marget Cameron, many with her characteristic soft focus.

1: Charles Robert Darwin, 1868. 12615i. The famous bearded scientist seen from the side.

2: May Prinsep as Christabel, 1866. 14081i. A young woman, Cameron’s niece and later daughter in law of Alfred Tennyson

3: Sir John Herschel, 12899i. A close up of the elderly polymath with unkempt hair and piercing eyes.

4: Annie Chinery Cameron as Zuleika, ca. 1872 14079i. Cameron’s daughter in law poses in biblical costume.

5: Four young women holding flowers, 1868. 24290i. All wearing white dresses and looking in different directions, the photograph has a fantastical feel to it.

6: A young woman in mourning dress, 1868/1872. 14080i

7: May Prinsep reading a letter at a desk with a birdcage hanging over, 1870. 14082i

8: Robert Browning, 1865. 14084i The poet looks off to the side, the image of spotted with stains as the photograph has degraded.

9: Samuel Wilberforce, 1871 14083i. Son of the more famous William, opponent of Darwin and bishop, photographed in his clerical dress.]

Tastefully cropped erotica made by a master Japanese craftsperson. You are welcome. Alt text: These four slides give det...
03/02/2025

Tastefully cropped erotica made by a master Japanese craftsperson. You are welcome.

Alt text: These four slides give details from paintings on ceramic tiles made in Japan (date unknown), showing strikingly tender scenes of two hetero lovers having s*x. In one, the woman plays a lute-like instrument while on top, and in another the man pulls keenly on the hems of his partner's red nightie. No matter their configuration, the couple maintain eye contact and seem to be having an equally nice time.

Erotic art known as Shunga (a euphemism translating as 'pictures of spring') has flourished in Japan for many centuries. The reception of such works in Europe is deeply entangled with Orientalism - the way an idea of 'the East' has been constructed by Western systems of power and thought.

Credit: Ceramic tiles by Japanese craftsman.
Reference: 581155i
Source: Wellcome Collection

Last year, photographer Yaw Afrim Gyebi journeyed from his home in Accra, Ghana to trace the path of the kola nut from f...
30/01/2025

Last year, photographer Yaw Afrim Gyebi journeyed from his home in Accra, Ghana to trace the path of the kola nut from farm to market. With these extraordinary photos, Yaw documents the people and communities whose lives and livelihoods are closely entwined with this iconic fruit.

Explore the full photo-essay online at wellcome.info/nothing-without-kola

This is the last weekend to catch our display 'The Kola Nut Cannot Be Contained', open until 2nd February.

Alt text:

1. Portrait of Abiba Duut, who is 115 years old. Abiba wears a green blouse, beaded necklace and white and blue headscarf. She says that kola nuts once protected her from an attack by spirits.
2. Portrait of Tani Tia consuming a kola nut. Tani wears a white polo-shirt and a patterned blue headscarf. In Ghana, gifts of kola nuts are offered as a sign of respect. At weddings, for instance, kola nuts are presented to both families to symbolise unity and acceptance.
3. Farmer Acheampong Prince on his plantation. Against a backdrop of foliage, he wears a baseball cap and open-necked shirt, and carries a leafy, freshly harvested crop of kola nuts.
4. A man in a purple collarless shirt sells kola nuts in a market.

Happy Lunar New Year!In the Chinese zodiac, this begins the year of the Snake. Those born in the year of the snake are c...
29/01/2025

Happy Lunar New Year!

In the Chinese zodiac, this begins the year of the Snake. Those born in the year of the snake are considered intelligent, creative but perhaps lacking in scruples.

Famous people born under the snake sign include Chairman Mao and Taylor Swift 🐍

Snakes have served as evocative symbolism across cultures as our examples illustrate.

[Alt text:

1: The Hindu God Krishna subdues the snake demon Kaliya in a river with Kaliya's two wives, two ladies in colourful saris but with long snake tails, pleading for his life 26316i

2: Two snakes, coloured yellow and black are curved round in a symmetrical pattern. One bites down on the head of a fish while the other has grabbed a toad by its foot. Alluding to the saying attributed to Bengali Vaishnava poet "It is harder to escape from debauchery once you have taken to it than it is for a fish to escape alive from the mouth of a snake". 26906i

3: An absolutely horrifying scene where several snakes wrapped around and strangling several cattle. 41123i

4: A powerful fist crushes a snake around its neck. Venom drips from its fangs. From a public health power representing the defeat of tuberculosis. 47641i

5: Cobras used for snake charming in India. Two rear up in a basket. K5885

6: A snake rears up in the grass representing German spies in the First World War. 571988i]

Pick thine steed for some medieval wacky racesThese whimsical and allegorical illustrations are from a German and Latin ...
28/01/2025

Pick thine steed for some medieval wacky races

These whimsical and allegorical illustrations are from a German and Latin manuscript book which was made around 1420. It has a reference of MS.49 but is more dramatically known to us as “Wellcome Apocalypse”.

Climb the steps of knowledge and read the fully digitised book which covers religion, medicine as well as the coming of the antichrist at the end of the world. Available here: https://wellcome.info/apocalypse

[Alt text:

1: A man riding a giant cat with a roast chicken on his lance. He has a squirrel balancing in his metal helmet and heraldry of a fish on his shield.

2: Another knight also in green but with time with a bird on his head, rides a miniature elephant

3: This knight rides a horned dragon with a twisty tale. He has a whole nest of birds on his head.

4: A figure in a green robe, representing fortuna, is sat upon a golden wheel. They are holding up flowers with both hands.

5: A knight with a flowery crown upon his helmet rides a unicorn and holds a golden shield illustrated with an angel.

6: A queen with a multi-coloured crown and grasping a sceptre sits upon a lion. She represents “superbia” meaning an unreasonable haughtiness and pride.

7: This knight with a crown of roses and heraldry of duck rides upon a unicorn with two horns (a bi-corn?), one pointed up and one pointed down.]

Reference: MS.49

Good morning!A copy of English painter Sir Edwin Landseer’s “A quiet pipe”. Landseer  (1802 – 1873) was popular in Victo...
27/01/2025

Good morning!
A copy of English painter Sir Edwin Landseer’s “A quiet pipe”. Landseer (1802 – 1873) was popular in Victorian Britain for his paintings of animals and is best known for his lion sculptures at the base of Nelson’s Column in Trafalgar Square.

[Alt text: An elderly Jack Russell Terrier with droopy ears and squinty eyes puffs on a pipe. On his collar is “Pears”, a popular soap brand at the time]

A dog smoking a pipe, with 'Pears' inscribed on his collar. Chromolithograph after E. Landseer. Date: [1907] Reference: 565569i

Wishing you a happy Burns Night!Hidden in the spine of this book we found the remains of a Robert Burn’s poem “Scots Wha...
25/01/2025

Wishing you a happy Burns Night!

Hidden in the spine of this book we found the remains of a Robert Burn’s poem “Scots Wha Hae”.

Often old material was used to bind newer books as binders sought to save money. Many lost manuscripts and text may lie hidden within the books on our shelves.

This poem tells the story of Robert the Bruce addressing his soldiers at the Battle of Bannockburn which would win Scotland’s independence from England.

The poem goes:

Scots, wha hae wi Wallace bled,
Scots, wham Bruce has aften led,
Welcome tae yer gory bed,
Or tae victorie.

Now's the day, an now's the hour:
See the front o battle lour,
See approach proud Edward's power—
Chains and Slaverie.

Wha will be a traitor knave?
Wha will fill a coward's grave?
Wha sae base as be a slave?
Let him turn a flee.

Wha, for Scotland's king and law,
Freedom's sword will strongly draw,
Freeman stand, or Freeman fa,
Let him on wi me.

By Oppression's woes and pains,
By your sons in servile chains!
We will drain our dearest veins,
But they shall be free.

Lay the proud usurpers low,
Tyrants fa in every foe,
Libertie's in every blow!—
Let us do or dee.

Found in the book “On cancerous and cancroid growths / By John Hughes Bennett ... with one hundred and ninety illustrations copied from nature and drawn on wood by the author.” EPB/B/69015

[Alt text: Behind the loose spine of a brown bound book is the music and lyrics: "See the front of the batt _ _ tle lour, See approach proud Fr..."]

Alongside collecting millions of artworks, objects and books, Henry Wellcome had another passion: his cats.Pictured here...
24/01/2025

Alongside collecting millions of artworks, objects and books, Henry Wellcome had another passion: his cats.

Pictured here is the adorable Pip and one of her kittens.

Sir Henry left very specific instructions for what they should eat: cooked beef, ox and lamb liver and kidney, boiled hake and cod, salmon and sardines, cooked vegetables with a little gravy.

All this MUST NOT be purchased from some cat’s meat butcher but from a “good reliable shop”.

Not only did they have a finely curated diet, they largely had the run of his Gloucester Gate house near Regent’s Park.

These photographs and documents are from the archive of the personal papers of Sir Henry Wellcome, much of which is digitised and can be accessed on our collections website: https://wellcome.info/HSW

Reference: WA/HSW/PH/K

[Alt text:

Image 1: Two cats, Henry Wellcome’s beloved Pip and one of her kittens. One is largely black with a little white and the other the inverse. They sit in front of a window while one nibbles on grass growing in a basket.

Image 2: A cat, black with white patterning sits next to flowers growing out of a box.]

In Ghana, the kola nut holds a revered place within herbal medicine. Fresh kola nuts are celebrated for their stimulatin...
23/01/2025

In Ghana, the kola nut holds a revered place within herbal medicine. Fresh kola nuts are celebrated for their stimulating effects, while dried or burnt forms are used to aid digestion and relieve headaches.

Last year, photographer Yaw Afrim Gyebi travelled through Ghana, exploring the unique shapes and shades of the kola nut along with its medicinal properties, which evolve throughout its life cycle.

Their photographic essay is online: https://wellcomecollection.org/stories/kola-nuts-close-up

And for more on the kola nut, visit our display 'The Kola Nut Cannot Be Contained', open until 2 February.

[Alt text: In these close-up photographs of the kola nut, we're introduced to a unique star-like fruit which, when cut open, typically contains 8 to 9 seeds that are beautifully arranged inside, in hues of pink, white and red. One photograph depicts outstretched palms with a mix of kola nuts, while others show darker nuts and nuts cut open to reveal fleshy pink tones. The colour of each kola nut is significant: some kola nuts are white and when they're heated and chewed, these white kola nuts offer relief for coughs and other respiratory problems. Others are bright pink in colour and have a smooth texture. Rich colours and polished surfaces are indicators of freshness and exceptional quality and are proof that a lot of care was taken when they were cultivated.]

The brutal and isolating Pentonville prison, built in 1842 in Islington in North London. Modelled on the American “separ...
22/01/2025

The brutal and isolating Pentonville prison, built in 1842 in Islington in North London.

Modelled on the American “separate system” where prisoners were kept in solitary confinement. Exercise courtyards were separated and even the chapel had isolated booths to eliminate almost all social contact amongst prisoners, causing high rates of depression.

Hard, unproductive work was used repeatedly for the sake of punishment and passing time, with direct consequences on mental and physical health of incarcerated people.

The story of Pentonville and the prison system at large features in our new exhibition, ‘Hard Graft: Work, Health and Rights’. It explores stories of underrepresented workers and their rights within precarious and unsafe labour environments. From protests to healing practices, the exhibition unveils hidden histories of resistance and collective action.

Find out more and plan your visit here: wellcome.info/hard-graft

These images are from an 1844 book by Joshua Jebb and is fully digitised and free to read on our collection’s website: https://wellcome.info/pentonville

[Alt text:

1: An isometric view of Pentonville Prison with four wings radiating off the main building with a wall encircling the whole facility. Also visible are the segregated exercise yards, divided up so that prisoners would always be kept apart.

2: A perspective view of the interior of a corridor from the central hall of the prison. Cell doorways and platforms line the corridor. Gentlemen and ladies seem to be being given a tour.

3: A longitudinal section of an austere cell with a small window, stool and table, toilet and hammock bedding.

4: Top down plan of the chapel with all the separate booths for the prisoners to pray alone in.

5: A plan of the stalls with doors both open and shut.

6: A top down view of the prison as described in image 1.

Reference: Report of the Surveyor-General of Prisons on the construction, ventilation, and details of Pentonville Prison, 1844 / [by J. Jebb]. EPB/B/25525

These beautiful hand-coloured photographs give us an extraordinary window into life in 1860s Japan: barbers, firemen, yo...
21/01/2025

These beautiful hand-coloured photographs give us an extraordinary window into life in 1860s Japan: barbers, firemen, young women, street-sellers, children.

Taken by a Western photographer, the photos also speak of the ever-present potential for colonial harm represented by the European presence there. Pictured a decade or so after Japan was forced to open its borders, how did these people feel about participating in photos staged for Western eyes? And how were their lives and traditions being transformed?

Explore more photographs by Felice Beato held in our collection here: https://wellcome.info/felicebeato.

Alt text: These slides show details a series of black-and-white portaits that have been carefully hand-coloured in shades of blue and ochre: two young women in patterned traditional dress, their hair elegantly put up; a man in a blue gown sitting for a haircut, his barber looking directly into the lens; a second customer tilting his head for a shave; firemen in traditional dress posing as a group; a man sparring in body-armour; a child riding a horse, and other portraits and street scenes.

Credit: Coloured photographs by Felice Beato, ca. 1868-70.
Two Japanese barbers. Reference: 35505i
Two Japanese young women wearing traditional dress. Reference: 569194i
Japan: firemen in traditional dress. Reference: 569203i
Japan: a street refreshment stall. Reference: 569389i
Japanese men sitting on the floor in a group. Reference: 569204i
Japan: spear-men wearing protective clothing and masks. Reference: 569192i
Japan: a child on a pony. Reference: 569399i
A Japanese married woman wearing traditional dress. Reference: 569193i

French doctor, Émile Roux, absolutely whalloping death itself.One of the founders of the school of immunology, he worked...
17/01/2025

French doctor, Émile Roux, absolutely whalloping death itself.

One of the founders of the school of immunology, he worked closely with Louis Pasteur, developed diphtheria anti-toxin serum and contributed research on cholera, rabies, and TB.

Over the course of his career, advancing medical knowledge would drive a steep decline in infant mortality.

Explore more of our collection oh his life and work here: https://wellcome.info/roux

[Alt text:

French immunologist Pierre Paul Émile Roux with a determined looked and busy moustache is holding a swaddled baby in the crook of his right arm. With his left he open hand slaps a skeleton in the ribcage, the skeleton is completely wiped out.]

Reference: Pierre Paul Émile Roux. Lithograph by J. Veber. 8272i

Touching grass after taking my VR goggles off for the first time in 6 days. Alt text: Three details of an illustration o...
16/01/2025

Touching grass after taking my VR goggles off for the first time in 6 days.

Alt text: Three details of an illustration of a 15th century French gardener or agricultural worker in lovely mauve tabard clasping the stem of a tree/big leafy plant. The young tree-hugger's face is a picture of spaced-out contentment.

Credit: Livre des simples médecines. Date: c. 1470
Reference: MS.626

What responsibility does science have to society?The British Society for Social Responsibility in Science (BSSRS) was th...
15/01/2025

What responsibility does science have to society?

The British Society for Social Responsibility in Science (BSSRS) was the centre of the radical science movement in the 1970s and campaigned for science that contributed to the public good rather than private profit.

BSSRS looked at the issues of worker’s safety, women’s rights, racism, the environment as well as chemical, biological and nuclear disarmament.

In an age of rapidly developing AI and spiralling climate change the questions they asked are more relevant than ever.

You can access the BSSRS archive, much of which is digitised, on our collections website: https://wellcome.info/bssrs

Papers from the BRRS archive feature in our new exhibition, ‘Hard Graft: Work, Health and Rights’. It explores stories of underrepresented workers and their rights within precarious and unsafe labour environments. From protests to healing practices, the exhibition unveils hidden histories of resistance and collective action.

Find out more and plan your visit here: wellcome.info/hard-graft

[Alt text:

1: “Office work is dangerous to Your Health”. A strange mechanistic being with cogs in their head and arms, types at enormous speed.

2: “WorkForce January - February 1973”. A small white hand holds a laboratory beaker in front of a raised black first.

3: “Women’s Work”. A cartoon of a woman with a bandaged eye being spoken to by a reclining fat cat behind a desk: “It’s MY machine, MY factory, MY workforce, MY profit and YOUR fault”.

4: Two cartoons: two cars crash into one another: “car-n-age”. A car’s exhaust fumes are piped into the car, filling it with smog: “Instant carma”.

5: “Real Time”. A clenched fist holds up a computer punch card in front of a tape reel.

6: “Shoot straight Lady” A woman in an apron aims a rolling pin as if it were a gun.

7: “Alternative technology”. A wooden windmill in a forest.

8: “Secondary School Environment Action” A family points to the effects of pollution all around them.

9: “A development action guide for workers in science and technology” Bubbling laboratory glassware feeds into a village house.

10: An anarchic illustration of London’s Smithfield market where meat lorries descend into a meat grinder from above and pour out as coins and profit from below.]

'Elephant? Oh yeah mate I've seen an elephant, I can draw one for you no probs.'Alt text: This may be the worst elephant...
13/01/2025

'Elephant? Oh yeah mate I've seen an elephant, I can draw one for you no probs.'

Alt text: This may be the worst elephant drawing ever made: the tusks are upside down, the trunk widens hideously at the tip, the legs are blatantly modelled on a deer, and the wretched thing has no ears or mouth. Is there a worse elephant on record? Come at me .

Credit: Livre des simples médecines, in French
Date: c. 1470 Reference: MS.626

How was your first week back at work?This poor fellow is a “wound man”, a figure that acted as an annotated table of con...
10/01/2025

How was your first week back at work?

This poor fellow is a “wound man”, a figure that acted as an annotated table of contents in 14th and 15th century European medical texts which guided the reader through healing the many types of wounds featured on this unfortunate man.

[Alt text:

Three comfortable-looking men in fine 16th century robes greet another man in very different circumstances. He wears only a loincloth but much worse than that he has a sword directly through his forehead, a club lodged into his skull, a dagger in his throat and another on his wrists, his organs are on display and he has several blades and arrows through his legs. However he seems to be taking it all with forbearance.

Reference: Chirurgia, das ist, Handwürckung der Wundartzney M. Hieronymi Braunschweig, 1539, EPB/B/7339

https://wellcome.info/woundman

https://wellcome.info/woundmandigitised]

Forget your horoscope, your Myers–Briggs type and your Hogwarts house, what's your animal physiognomy type?🦉🐷🦅🐱🐮🦊🦁🦡Physi...
09/01/2025

Forget your horoscope, your Myers–Briggs type and your Hogwarts house, what's your animal physiognomy type?

🦉🐷🦅🐱🐮🦊🦁🦡

Physiognomy is the very old and deeply controversial practice of judging a person’s character and traits by their appearance. Here accomplished French painter Charles Le Brun draws comparisons with the faces and natures of people and animals.

From “A series of lithographic drawings illustrative of the relation between the human physiognomy and that of the brute creation” by Charles Le Brun.

If you don’t think any of these faces look much like yours the whole book is fully digitised on our website for you to find your animal doppelganger: https://wellcome.info/LeBrun

Reference: EPB/F/445

[Alt text:

A series of black and white images featuring animals on top and people below who look uncannily like their be****al counterparts.

Image 1: Three wide eyed owls and three men with perfectly circular eyes and beak like noses.

Image 2: Two wild boars and two men with bushy moustaches and eyebrows with fuzzy unkept beards.

Image 3: Three eagles and three intense but noble looking men with aquiline noses.

Image 4: Two cats and four men with strange feline faces with more than a hint of cunning to them

Image 5: Three bulls and three men. The men have strong solid faces and cow-like eyes.

Image 6: Two foxes and three humans with fox-like faces, they have vicious pointed faces with sharp looking teeth.

Image 7: Two lions and three men who have bushy hair and beards. They look like dark age kings.

Image 8: Two badgers and two men with pointed faces that are both eerie and gentle.

Image 9: Two rams and three men with bovid-like eyes and woolen hair.

Entertainers, tradespeople, acrobats, craftspeople. Life working on the streets can be rich and vibrant but also precari...
08/01/2025

Entertainers, tradespeople, acrobats, craftspeople. Life working on the streets can be rich and vibrant but also precarious, unsafe and unsanitary. These paintings show the lives of these people who lived and laboured on the highways and byways of 19th century India.

Our exhibition, ‘Hard Graft: Work, Health and Rights’ explores stories of underrepresented workers and their rights within precarious and unsafe labour environments. From protests to healing practices, the exhibition unveils hidden histories of resistance and collective action.

Find out more and plan your visit here: wellcome.info/hard-graft

[Alt text: A series of Indian paintings, gouache and watercolour, of street workers.

1: A street performer on stilts towers above his accompanying musicians. He holds a sword and shield while also balancing a pillar of five coconuts upon his head. 581145i

2: A street vendor sitting on a mat with a large assortment of items such as tools and cloth. 580799i

3: A man performing a puppet show with models of two bickering women in red saris. 576626i

4: A Delhi washerman in all white washes clothes. 575942i

5: A man with a performing black bear on a string. It walks on its hind legs. 580800i

6: A mustachioed man in white kneels down and uses an pestle and mortar type equipment with both hands. 581427i

7: In a woodcutter’s shop a pile of timber is measured on a balancing scale while two men discuss. 581421i

8: Men and women gather around a fishmonger’s stall. A small dog is underneath the table, possibly in search of a snack. 774463i]

New Year's resolutions:1) Get back into yoga2) Improve skincare routine3) Buy some new clothes[Alt text: Engraving of fo...
07/01/2025

New Year's resolutions:

1) Get back into yoga
2) Improve skincare routine
3) Buy some new clothes

[Alt text: Engraving of four figures with their nerves and muscles on display in various poses.

Image 1: Front view, left arm flexed, right arm stretched out.

Image 2: Front view with ribcage and spine visible. Left arm down by the leg and the right one held up. Head tilted backwards.

Image 3: Back view of image 1.

Image 4: Back view of image 2.]

Credit: Anatomy of nerves: four figures (two above anterior, two below posterior). Engraving by J.S. Muller after B. Eustachius, 1750. Reference: 668578i

Back to work today 😫 [Alt text: Line engraving of an anguished man clutching his face. A horned skeleton in the bottom r...
02/01/2025

Back to work today 😫

[Alt text: Line engraving of an anguished man clutching his face. A horned skeleton in the bottom right provides a sinister presence. Various other souls writhe in the background.]

Reference: 46791i. The Last Judgment: sinners in hell are tortured by monstrous devils as a ferry carries new arrivals to the same fate. Line engraving by Petrus de Jode the elder, 1615, after Jean Cousin the younger.

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

Feeling attacked by these two 20th century postcards right now. We're closed today.  Image: Two men in bed on a Saturday...
01/01/2025

Feeling attacked by these two 20th century postcards right now. We're closed today.

Image: Two men in bed on a Saturday night drinking from a bottle of alcohol. Colour process print, ca. 1908. Reference:2060532i. Part of: The James Gardiner Collection. Photographs.

[Alt text: Two postcards of two men in bed. In the first image, the pair are lying in bed drinking alcohol through two tubes inserted into the top of the bottle. The caption reads: ‘Saturday evening’. In the second image, the two are nursing hangovers, and can be seen holding cloths to their foreheads, the bottle still on the bed. The caption says, ‘Sunday morning’.]

Words of wisdom for 2025 from a 100-year-old postcard in our collection. Alt text: On the left, a classical athlete hold...
31/12/2024

Words of wisdom for 2025 from a 100-year-old postcard in our collection.

Alt text: On the left, a classical athlete holds up a giant clock on his shoulders, atlas-like, with the words 'A Happy New Year' written against a pink background. On the right, another postcard has the simple handwritten message 'LIVE AND LEARN'. (Yes, we cheated and they're not the same card).

Credit: A relief of an athlete holding a giant clock above his head. Colour process print, 1908. Reference 2047065i. Postcard on right: Reference 2060521i.

Today we're channeling the transcendental cosiness of Elizabeth Woodcock: buried under six feet of snow on a Saturday ni...
30/12/2024

Today we're channeling the transcendental cosiness of Elizabeth Woodcock: buried under six feet of snow on a Saturday night in 1799 and rescued - extremely chilly but very much alive - more than a week later. Here she is tucked-up tight and recuperating from her Christmassy nightmare.

Alt text: In this engraving, Elizabeth - a white woman with dark hair - lies snugly in a bed, her bonneted head resting on a pillow and the covers pulled up over her lap. Under the drawing her story is recounted in a caption.

Credit: Elizabeth Woodcock, recuperating in bed after being buried in snow for eight days, aged 42. Stipple engraving by J. Baldrey after himself, 1799.
Baldrey, John Kirby, 1750-1823.
Date: 18 March 1799 Reference: 1978i

27/12/2024

Our galleries, Reading Room and cafe are back open!

Though, be aware, we are closed on New Year’s Day 😴

This is also your last chance to see our exhibition by artist Jason Wilsher-Mills (), a playful exploration of creativity, disability and childhood memory.

Find out more about Jason's exhibition, open until 12th January 2025: wellcome.info/jason-wilsher-mills

[Alt text: The video opens with artist Jason Wilsher-Mills at one of his light up dioramas in the exhibition space. We first witness sped up animation of Jason shading in his sketch of a hippo, the original pencil drawing above and the digital copy below. We then see the finished product in the diorama, the hippo now has wings and is against a textured blue and mauve background.]

Wishing you the very best Christmas / Hanukkah / Pancha Ganapati / Kwanzaa / Zarthost No-Diso / Yule / Normal Wednesday ...
24/12/2024

Wishing you the very best Christmas / Hanukkah / Pancha Ganapati / Kwanzaa / Zarthost No-Diso / Yule / Normal Wednesday from all of us here at Wellcome Collection ❤️

We're closed today, tomorrow and Boxing Day, but we'll see your lovely smiling faces again when we reopen on Friday 27th December.

Alt text: In this postcard-sized print, two young men in military uniform (one army, one navy) lean close to each other as their ci******es are lit with a single blazing flame. The words 'A Happy Christmas' are written in faint gold beneath them. This picture made its way into our collection as an instance of 'accidentally homo-erotic' imagery from the First World War.

Credit: A sailor and a soldier face to face lighting each other's ci******es. Colour process print after C.T. Howard, 191-. Source: Wellcome Collection.

https://wellcomecollection.org/works/zunzyg4y

Blissful after-dinner stupor, or life-threatening coma? As demonstrated here, one way of checking is to hold a glass of ...
23/12/2024

Blissful after-dinner stupor, or life-threatening coma?

As demonstrated here, one way of checking is to hold a glass of strong sherry under the afflicted relative's nose. If they rally, you're golden.

Alt text: This etching shows a man zonked-out in a chair while his 'drunken companion' holds a small glass of booze up to his face.

Credit: One man sits soundly sleeping as his drunken companion offers him another drink. Etching by T. Sandars, 1773, after J. Collier.
Bobbin, Tim, 1708-1786.
Date: June 1773 Reference: 26317i

Address

183 Euston Road
London
NW12BE

Opening Hours

Monday 10am - 6pm
Tuesday 10am - 6pm
Wednesday 10am - 6pm
Thursday 10am - 6pm
Friday 10am - 6pm
Saturday 10am - 6pm
Sunday 10am - 6pm

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Wellcome Collection posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Museum

Send a message to Wellcome Collection:

Videos

Share

Category

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.