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  • Item of the month, May 2010: Defying “Old graviation’s sway”

    29/05/2010

    Etching and stipple print by P.W. Tomkins,1798, after Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1786. Wellcome Library no. 536282i   In Roman history, the keepers of the temple of Vesta were the Vestal Virgins, who play a part in many myths and stories.… Continue reading

  • Chevalier D’Éon: a bi-centenary

    21/05/2010

    Charles Geneviève Louis Auguste André Timothée Chevalier D’Éon de Beaumont died 200 years ago on 21 May 1810 REQUIESCAT IN PACE Spy: his cloak-and-dagger activity in a world of smoke and mirrors would have baffled George Smiley. He practised this… Continue reading

  • William Hogarth’s ‘Cunicularii’. Wellcome Library Item of the month, April 2010

    28/04/2010

    Cunicularii or the wise men of Godliman in consultation. Etching by William Hogarth, 1726. Wellcome Library no. 17342i The story of Mary Toft (also called Tofts) has been told many times, but it is worth revisiting as it has many… Continue reading

  • “The doctor’s dream”

    27/03/2010

    Engraving by Albrecht Dürer. Wellcome Library no. 570763i. Albrecht Dürer’s engraving traditionally called “The doctor’s dream” is thought to be an early work, dating from his late twenties, i.e. circa 1497-1498. It shows a man sleeping by a hot stove… Continue reading

  • What’s new in Paris–July 1539

    19/03/2010

    In an article in the March 2010 issue of Print quarterly, Kate Heard publishes a rare early reference to a French anatomical fugitive sheet. [1] Even more unexpected: it comes from an Englishman. More about that later. But first, what… Continue reading

  • Free at last! Wellcome Library Items of the month, January 2010

    04/01/2010

    “Wine of the Incas. … Coca of Peru. For convalescents.” Lithograph after A.M. Mucha. Wellcome Library no. 658317i. As fireworks, church-bells and champagne corks sounded the passage of 2009 into 2010, library users were receiving a benefit that was in… Continue reading

  • Obesity and personality

    22/12/2009

    Long before and long after the photographer Eadweard Muybridge shot and killed his wife’s lover Major Larkyns in San Francisco in 1874, he has never been far from controversy. The picture above (click on image to enlarge) is one of… Continue reading

  • Parish notices

    04/12/2009

                                    Wellcome Library no. 669602i This painting of a parish council meeting is a remarkable document, and perhaps not as well known as it deserves to be (click on the image to see the picture in all its amazing detail).… Continue reading

  • The American way

    18/11/2009

    Lithograph after a design by Al Capp (1909-1979) Wellcome Library no. 679768i Behind the scenes, the Wellcome Library has been cataloguing a large collection of posters which the Library has gradually acquired over the last couple of years. They are… Continue reading

  • Two empresses and their sons

    04/09/2009

    SS. Constantine and Helena. Russian painting on wood. Wellcome Library no. 34400i Empresses are rarely encountered. However a small Russian painting in the Wellcome Library records a bond between two empresses who lived fifteen centuries apart. As will be seen,… Continue reading