Wellcome Collection

What’s on

This exhibition explores humanity’s vital connection with freshwater – an essential source of life and pillar of good health for people and planet.
Wellcome Collection

Sir Charles Bell's watercolours of wounds sustained by soldiers at the Battle of Waterloo, June 1815

The originals may be consulted at the Museum of Military Medicine. A digitised copy is available to view via the online catalogue on the Wellcome Collection website. A facsimile set of colour ...
Wellcome Collection

Explore the collections

Over 1.1 million items exploring art, health, culture and what it means to be human. Our South Asian collections include historical manuscripts in the region’s many languages, documents from the ...
Wellcome Collection

Ophthalmia neonatorum : with especial reference to its causation and prevention / by Sydney Stephenson.

Credit: Ophthalmia neonatorum : with especial reference to its causation and prevention / by Sydney Stephenson. Source: Wellcome Collection. Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey ...
Wellcome Collection

A man vomiting after overeating and drinking; representing the sense of touch. Engraving by J.J. Kleinschmidt after Jan van de Velde the younger.

You can use this work for any purpose, as long as it is not primarily intended for or directed to commercial advantage or monetary compensation. You should also provide attribution to the original ...
Wellcome Collection

Notes, medical and surgical, taken during the late siege of Lucknow / by H.M. Greenhow.

Credit: Notes, medical and surgical, taken during the late siege of Lucknow / by H.M. Greenhow. Source: Wellcome Collection. Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons ...
Wellcome Collection

The American eclectic materia medica and therapeutics / John M. Scudder.

Credit: The American eclectic materia medica and therapeutics / John M. Scudder. Source: Wellcome Collection. Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, ...
Wellcome Collection

The colonial roots of our collections, and our response

Wellcome Collection is built on collections assembled by Sir Henry Wellcome. In the early 20th century Wellcome founded a private historical medical museum closely linked with his pharmaceutical ...
Wellcome Collection

Disturbed minds and disruptive bodies

show credit information for image 'Woking Convict Invalid Prison: a woman prisoner in solitary confinement.' In July 1859, the Superintendent of Mountjoy Female Prison, Dublin, wrote in desperation to ...
Wellcome Collection

Nymphomania and hypersexuality in women and men

show credit information for image 'Phallic object, large plaster female figure.' Alfred Charles Kinsey once said that a nymphomaniac is “someone who has more sex than you do”, and Kinsey was a man who ...
Wellcome Collection

A medical history of smoking, from cure to killer

In the five centuries since Europeans were introduced to tobacco, smoking has generated considerable controversy. This gallery tracks shifting views on smoking and health, from life-saving stimulant ...
Wellcome Collection

Intelligence testing, race and eugenics

show credit information for image 'Legacies of eugenics in school' Legacies of eugenics in school. © Gergo Varga (varrgo.com) for Wellcome Collection. When A-level ...