Author: Natalie Walters

Most people have heard of John Snow as the man who traced the source of the 1854 cholera outbreak in Soho to one pump in Broad Street. However, Snow’s primary work as a pioneering anaesthetist is often overlooked. Richard Ellis,… Continue reading

The archive of the Anatomical Society has recently been catalogued and is now available to researchers at the Wellcome Library. The collection covers the founding of the society until the 1980s, and includes a range of documents on membership, (SA/ANA/C)… Continue reading

On 19th April 1943, Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann accidentally got some of the chemical he was synthesising onto his fingers, resulting in what he described as a dreamlike intoxication that lasted for two hours. His employers, Sandoz pharmaceuticals were quick… Continue reading

The Wellcome Trust ’s mission is to foster human and animal health. Sometimes these two areas converge. The BSE crisis of the late 1990s was one such occurrence. Sir John Pattison, former vice-provost of University College London School of Health,… Continue reading

In May 1940, Birmingham schoolteacher and army reservist, Kenneth Davies Hopkins, was captured by the Nazis in France, and sent to a succession of Prisoner of War camps in Germany. Whilst interned he had the idea of recording the dreams… Continue reading

The archives of the Royal Society for Public Health are now available at the Wellcome Library. Whilst the current Wellcome Collection exhibition, Dirt, shows the filthy reality of everyday life, this collection demonstrates how people have worked to combat dirt,… Continue reading

Ever wished you had the ability to accurately judge a person’s character from their appearance? Perhaps you want to know when your baby will be born? Or what message your new beard is giving to strangers? Well, you’re in luck.… Continue reading

The current issue of Ariadne, the web magazine for information professionals, includes an article by three members of Wellcome Library staff. Trust me I’m an Archivist: experiences with digital donors describes some of our encounters with potential donors of digital… Continue reading

The archives of the anti-smoking charity ASH, held by the Wellcome Library, have almost doubled in size, with the addition of 80 boxes of newly catalogued material. The new material covers a very interesting period in the fight against smoking,… Continue reading

What do Edgar Allen Poe, protozoology and breeding rabbits have in common? The answer: Percy Cyril Claude Garnham, a rabbit breeding, Poe reading Professor of Medical Protozoology whose papers are held by the Wellcome Library. Although the majority of Garnham’s… Continue reading