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Open this year
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
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Birth: a changing scene. Part II: A controversial figure of man-midwife
Is it a man? Is it a woman? No, it is a man-midwife, a figure that stirred much controversy upon its arrival on the British soil in the beginning of the 18th century. The alleged hermaphroditism of a man-midwife, as… Continue reading
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Recovering the women in science
There has recently been increasing interest in recovering the history of women in science, perhaps as the result of the desire to recruit more women into studying STEM subjects. The Royal Society recently held a group ‘Edit-a-thon’, to improve Wikipedia articles… Continue reading
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Birth: a changing scene. Part I: Images of home birth in the Wellcome Library
Library Assistant Anna Ostrowska shares with us some of her research for her recent Wellcome Library Insight Session. With current home birth rate in the UK standing at meagre 2.39%, it is easy to forget that less than a hundred… Continue reading
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The International Confederation of Midwives
The cataloguing of the records of the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM) is now completed and the catalogue is available on-line at the Wellcome Library, reference SA/ICM. The Library is extremely grateful to the International Confederation of Midwives for funding… Continue reading
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Motherhood and apple pie
Some great graphic novels and comics have come into the library recently on the themes of pregnancy, childbirth and motherhood. Kate Brown’s graphic novel Fish+Chocolate provides three short stories around the theme of motherhood. The third of these, Matryoshka is the… Continue reading
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If Walls Could Talk
Last week, Dr Lesley Hall, Senior Archivist, Wellcome Library, appeared in an episode of BBC4’s new history series, If Walls Could Talk: The History of the Home. In the series, presenter Dr Lucy Worsley uncovers the history of familiar domestic… Continue reading
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Item of the month, January 2011: A moment of pain and triumph.
Lithograph by C. Felixmüller, ca. 1922. Wellcome Library no. 727758i This is a home birth in the 1920s. In other times or places, the two – subsequently three – people involved might have had moral support from women friends of… Continue reading
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An Extraordinary Delivery of Rabbets: see the Mary Toft collection online
The Library holds a comprehensive collection of early printed works concerning the notorious case of Mary Toft, a woman who claimed to give birth to rabbits. Around 22 18th century pamphlets and books have been scanned cover to cover and… Continue reading