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Author: William Schupbach

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  • Spotlight on Headingley, 1897

    23/06/2014

    Over the last few days, hundreds of thousands of Sri Lankans and Britons around the world have been been paying attention to an event taking place in a suburb of Leeds in Yorkshire. It’s the second Test between Sri Lanka… Continue reading

  • Spotlight: a summer fête in Powys

    09/06/2014

    Two men pose for the camera at a Welsh vicarage garden party on Saturday 25 July 1925. They are performing a charade, but surely few people could guess what their outlandish costumes are supposed to represent. In fact they are… Continue reading

  • Early modern horror: a study visit to the Wellcome Library

    21/03/2014

    The second term of the academic year (January – March) is a popular time for seminars and classes at the Wellcome Library. The last two months have seen visits from many university institutions in London (the Courtauld Institute of Art,… Continue reading

  • Daumier’s Flâneur: an appropriated man

    17/01/2014

    The cover of the September 2013 Apollo magazine might have aroused a semi-conscious flicker of déjà vu in some visitors to the Wellcome Library. It reproduced a painting by the Scottish-born painter Peter Doig. The painting, called Metropolitain, is one… Continue reading

  • Bring on the shepherds

    23/12/2013

    While the Wellcome Library is closed for the Christmas holiday (23 December 2013 to 1 January 2014), the shepherds — bit players in the drama of the Nativity — receive top billing on the Wellcome Library blog. A look at… Continue reading

  • Focusing on history in Hong Kong

    16/12/2013

    A revelation awaits visitors to the Hong Kong Maritime Museum: the current exhibition Through the Lens of John Thomson: Hong Kong and Coastal China (1868-1872). The exhibition shows large photographic prints of Hong Kong and mainland China in 1868-1872, made… Continue reading

  • A new catalogue of paintings: Camden vol. 1

    13/11/2013

    One of the latest volumes published by the Public Catalogue Foundation is devoted to paintings located in the London Borough of Camden, including the paintings in the Wellcome Library. The Public Catalogue Foundation (PCF) is a charity that, among other… Continue reading

  • We come to no. 70,000: Landscape without rainbow

    02/11/2013

    A new milestone has been reached in the cataloguing of the Wellcome Library’s prints, photographs, drawings and paintings: the 70,000th catalogue record has been created. The 65,000th record was noted on this blog on 18 March 2009.  Both Library staff… Continue reading

  • Potsdam for piety, potatoes, pleasure and parades

    14/10/2013

    Frederick the Great (1712-1786) left his mark on Europe in many fields: war, music, politics, architecture, language, philosophy, and nutrition. His presence is most apparent at Potsdam in Germany, where he built the Sanssouci Palace and the Neues Palais. These… Continue reading

  • AIDS in Zimbabwe: a designer’s memoir

    08/08/2013

    In 1999 the Wellcome Library acquired this AIDS poster in the colours of the Zimbabwean flag (red, green, yellow and black), but had no idea of the story behind its creation until this year, when we were contacted by its… Continue reading