From the Collections

A useful new biographical resource has been added to the catalogue of the archives of the Medical Women’s Federation (SA/MWF). Thanks to the painstaking work of Emma Milliken, an index to the obituaries of women doctors which appeared in the… Continue reading

Inspired by one of our manuscripts, readers of Londonist are attempting a 20 mile walk across London to track how the city has changed over the last 150 years. They’re following in the footsteps of James Patterson, a master at… Continue reading

Dr Lesley Hall of the Wellcome Library was one of the contributors to a recent BBC Radio 3 documentary discussing the curious afterlife of Edward Bulwer Lytton’s Vril. Matthew Sweet finds out about Vril, the infinitely powerful energy source of… Continue reading

Our recently catalogued case reports of Sir Bernard Spilsbury, received further promotion through a recent article in The Times. Ben Macintyre writes: “The archive offers a unique insight into the British way of death in an earlier age, but it… Continue reading

The Library has recently purchased the only known copy of a German pamphlet from 1785 that still contains two original ‘forehead reading’ templates. Made of cardboard and hand painted, these unique plates fit over the forehead to enable the practise… Continue reading

Richard Barnett’s new book, Medical London: City of Diseases, City of Cures has been selected as Book of the Week on Radio 4. You can tune in each morning at 9.45, or at 00.30 for the nightbirds. And of course,… Continue reading

Newly added to the online catalogue of Wellcome Library archives: two letters by the French novelist Joris-Karl Huysmans (1848-1907). Huysmans is most famous for the novel À rebours (Against Nature), a landmark of the decadent movement whose millionaire “hero”, Des… Continue reading

Archives and Manuscripts, Wellcome Library, are delighted to announce that the Sir Bernard Spilsbury material purchased at Sothebys earlier this year has now been catalogued and is available to researchers subject to the usual conditions of access to archival and… Continue reading

Wellcome Film digital video is now online via the Wellcome Library catalogue. Around 61 titles have recently been uploaded, including Exit polio 1961, Looking Around 1952 (a Wellcome cine magazine), Aseptic operating theatre technique 1933, and War Neuroses 1918. New… Continue reading

This painting from our collections is of Lili Elbe, one of the world’s first transsexuals, and who – if reports are true – is to be portrayed in a new film by Nicole Kidman. Lili was born male in 1882… Continue reading