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  • Item of the Month, December 2011: Sun Yat-sen and Sir James Cantlie

    29/12/2011

    In March 1912 the provisional president of the newly created Republic of China, Sun Yat-sen, sent this letter to Mrs Mabel Cantlie, wife of the British tropical medicine specialist Dr James Cantlie. In it he surveys the enormous challenge the… Continue reading

  • Spades, Hearts, Diamonds

    21/12/2011

    A game of cards. Oil painting by Stephen Jenner. Wellcome Library no. 47409i In England in 1840, Queen Victoria married Prince Albert, Charles Dickens published The Old Curiosity Shop, and a certain E. Estridge passed the time by drawing on… Continue reading

  • Random Edition on BBC Radio 4

    15/12/2011

    In this week’s episode of BBC Radio 4’s Random Edition, presenter Peter Snow marked the 150th anniversary of the death of Prince Albert. The programme focused on how the Prince Consort’s death was reported in one issue of the London… Continue reading

  • HIV/AIDS at 30: Spreading the Word

    01/12/2011

    To mark World AIDS Day (1 December) this year, BHIVA (the British HIV Association) held a World AIDS Day Event in collaboration with the Wellcome Trust on the theme HIV/AIDS at 30: Back to the Future. 2011 is the thirtieth… Continue reading

  • Music of the blind

    28/11/2011

    Blind musicians in Paris. Detail of lithograph by Martin Sylvestre Baptiste, 1828. Wellcome Library no. 16519i   An article by Ingrid Sykes in the latest issue of Medical History considers the blind in Paris from an unusual angle: their sound.… Continue reading

  • Approaching Sikandra

    08/11/2011

    Everyone who visits Agra in Uttar Pradesh visits the Taj Mahal, the monument which was built from 1632 onwards by the sorrowful Shah Jahan (1592-1666), fifth Mughal emperor, in memory of his wife, Mumtaz Mahal, after her death in childbirth.… Continue reading

  • Voodoo panels bring Wellcome Library to 750,000

    20/10/2011

    It seems appropriate that in the 75th anniversary year of Henry S. Wellcome’s death, the Wellcome Library, named after him because it was created by him in his lifetime, has added the 750,000th work to its online catalogue (online at… Continue reading

  • Louis Wain in Willesden

    19/10/2011

    Amidst the much-publicised closing-down and boarding-up of some of the public libraries in the London Borough of Brent, there has been a cheering event from Brent Archives and Museum at Willesden Green Library Centre: their exhibition of works by the… Continue reading

  • Max Klinger at Dresden in 1911: Wellcome Library Item of the Month

    30/09/2011

    1911 was a bumper year for exhibitions. In London there was the Festival of Empire and Imperial Exhibition at the Crystal Palace. In Turin there was the Esposizione Internazionale delle Industrie e del Lavoro. At the Hague in September there… Continue reading

  • Flying postmen and magic glass

    14/09/2011

    The Paleofuture blog looks back at past projections into the future, an exercise that is usually instructive in one way or another. A few months ago (17 June 2011) it had a feature on a picture of “Rocket mailmen” which… Continue reading