Author: Ross Macfarlane

This week’s free Wellcome Library Insight session – on Thursday 23rd June – explores the changing role of women in medicine and attitudes to female healers through the centuries, with historical material drawn from the Wellcome Library’s collections. Our Insight… Continue reading

Last night’s edition of BBC’s The ONE Show included a feature on the history of midwifery. Filmed in the Medicine Man gallery of Wellcome Collection, the sequence featured an interview with Prof Elaine Hobby (Loughborough University), who illustrated her account… Continue reading

MRSA and C Diff may be relative new-comers on the scene, but hospital acquired infections have been around as long as hospitals have. It was Joseph Lister’s groundbreaking work on aseptic surgery which offered the first hope of a solution… Continue reading

This Thursday afternoon (16th June) offers another chance to explore the provocative idea that faces can be ‘read’, through our free Fascinating Faces ‘Insight’ session. This session will explore face reading, from its origins in Ancient Greece and China up… Continue reading

The Wellcome Library currently has trials running to four electronic journals, which can be accessed via the links below to the Library catalogue: American historical review The official publication of the American Historical Association. HOPOS: the journal of the International… Continue reading

As today is the 200th anniversay of the birth of Sir James Young Simpson, we did think of marking the day by highlighting the works in our collections written by him, which reflect not just his pioneering work in the… Continue reading

Had not been for an encounter with a fur trapper, it is likely that William Beaumont (1785-1853) (pictured left) would have been just another surgeon in the United States army whose name was lost to posterity. As a result of… Continue reading

Our popular Insight sessions offer visitors to the Wellcome Library an opportunity to explore the variety of our holdings. These free sessions are thematic in style, last around an hour and offer a chance to learn about our collections. Details… Continue reading

As the latest issue of the Wellcome Trust’s Big Picture tackles the themes of Food and Diet, we thought we would set a culinary challenge for chef Zack Mila. Faced with the Library’s collection of 17th recipe manuscripts – and… Continue reading

An exhibition of cat illustrations by Louis Wain (1860-1939) has recently opened at Brent Museum, Willesden Green Library Centre, London, NW10. A visit is highly recommended, especially if you are a fan of Wain, cats or the art of anthropomorphism!… Continue reading