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  • Codebreakers: makers of modern genetics

    01/03/2013

    Back in 2010 we began a long term project to digitise our collections. Our aim was (and is) to put 30 million pages online by 2020. Today we’re taking a major step towards that goal. Codebreakers: the makers of modern… Continue reading

  • A collector of rare diseases

    28/02/2013

    Today (28th February) is Rare Disease Day, and it seems appropriate to draw attention to our holdings of the papers of a major figure in the history of unusual diseases and syndromes, Frederick Parkes Weber FRCP (1863-1962). Parkes Weber’s contributions… Continue reading

  • Archival top of the pops 2012

    13/02/2013

    Referring back to the popularity contests of previous years reported in the Library blog, 2012’s most popular favourites were pretty predictable:   The Royal Army Medical Corps Muniment Collection, the Wellcome Foundation archives, the Family Planning Association archive, the archives… Continue reading

  • Open this year

    31/01/2013

    Archives are the raw material of history: where a published source will typically give you an overview, archives plunge you into the day-to-day detail of the past.  It is from this detail that history synthesises its grand pictures: there is no… Continue reading

  • Connecting the scattered archipelago

    25/01/2013

    Stating the obvious: when you write someone a letter, you don’t keep it.  These days, e-mail or word-processing give us the chance to keep a complete record of the correspondence we send out, but for much of human history a… Continue reading

  • Happy Birthday, London Underground!

    09/01/2013

    On Saturday 10th January 1863, a few yards from where the Wellcome Library now stands, a short stretch of railway line was opened to the public.  Only a few miles long, running from the Great Western Railway’s Paddington terminus to… Continue reading

  • Sex, religion and royalty: also dairy farming

    20/12/2012

    Religion, sex, and royalty are supposed to be the perfect storm for creating a bestseller. Archives and Manuscripts have recently acquired some papers of Lord Dawson of Penn, physician to four monarchs (Edwards VII and VIII, Georges V and VI),… Continue reading

  • Shiny shiny, shiny boots of leather

    07/12/2012

    Forty-five years ago, a New York rock band under Andy Warhol’s patronage released their debut LP. The Velvet Underground and Nico crept out under the radar compared to some of 1967’s other releases – The Beatles’ Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts… Continue reading

  • Photograph of Spilsbury's index cards in the original wooden cabinet

    Strangulation, sex and death

    29/11/2012

    An exciting new addition to our existing holdings of Spilsbury papers helps clarify the working methods and interests of this famous (or notorious) forensic pathologist. In July this year the Library was fortunate enough to be the winning bidder at… Continue reading

  • The Ruffian on the Stair: CSI Victorian London

    27/11/2012

    “In the midst of life, we are in death” – in the midst of the Library, right now, even more so.  Downstairs the Wellcome Collection’s exhibition “Death: a Self-Portrait” runs until 24th February, showing 300 objects from the Richard Harris… Continue reading