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  • Studying transgender and transvestism: a new archive

    04/12/2014

    Wellcome Collection’s exhibition about the study of sex, The Institute of Sexology, highlights the profound effect that the gathering and analysis of information can have in changing attitudes and lifting taboos. Much of the display takes its inspiration from archives… Continue reading

  • Health posters from the past: visual responses to AIDS

    01/12/2014

    On World AIDS Day (1 December) take some time to look back at how the world responded to the AIDS epidemic by browsing our international collection of over 3000 AIDS posters online. When AIDS gripped the world in 1981, the… Continue reading

  • Wellcome’s tropical legacy

    30/11/2014

    Some of the most innovative medical research happens in Africa. This was something Henry Wellcome knew, and it is something that the Wellcome Trust continues to be aware of. Today, major overseas programmes supported by the Trust include the KEMRI-Wellcome… Continue reading

  • Meditation and modernity: an image of Marguerite Agniel

    28/11/2014

    A photograph in our collections inspired Isobel Routledge to find out more about the intriguingly posed woman in the picture. My desk is covered in  postcards from Wellcome Images. One photograph in particular has always stood out for me. It’s… Continue reading

  • Hooked in by the (Derby) neck

    21/11/2014

    Intriguing images are useful in capturing the attention; they could make a difference to whether or not a person takes an interest in what you have to say. Take the image below, seen in my local paper; you can imagine… Continue reading

  • Flushed with achievement

    19/11/2014

    Wednesday November 19th is World Toilet Day. For readers in the developed world, this conjures up images of gleaming white porcelain and a hole down which bodily waste vanishes swiftly to be dealt with, somewhere, by someone else: a machine,… Continue reading

  • A commemoration of Armistice Day

    11/11/2014

    As we commemorate the 100th anniversary of the start of World War I, an exhibition catalogue in the Library’s collections takes us back to 1968 and the 50th anniversary of Armistice Day: the official end of the War on 11… Continue reading

  • Hell is empty and all the devils are here

    31/10/2014

    In the Library’s Art Collection is a wealth of Japanese iconographic works. Of fiendish interest to us this Halloween, is one fascinating print featuring the demons of Japanese folklore and mythology. The woodcut print by Kunisada Utagawa above features six Japanese masks.… Continue reading

  • Spotlight: the legend of the Divine Farmer

    28/10/2014

    This c.1920 watercolour is a copy of an ancient original and can be found in the Library’s Art Collection, along with other visual material featuring the Shen Nong. Legend has it that Shen Nong (神农), or ‘Divine Farmer’, was one… Continue reading

  • Mud, snipers and rats: rescuing the injured from the trenches

    17/10/2014

    “The spade will be as indispensable to a soldier as his rifle” predicted Ivan Bloch in 1899. This proved to be an accurate prediction for the static and trench bound nature of World War I. With machine gun fire faster… Continue reading