Wellcome Library
 |
|
 |
|
| Established | 1949 |
|---|---|
| Location | Euston Road, London, England |
| Collection | |
| Items collected | books, journals, archives, manuscripts, sound and music recordings, films, videos, databases, ephemera, prints, drawings, paintings, and photographs |
| Size | 2.5 million items |
| Access and use | |
| Access requirements | Open to anyone with a research or study interest in the history and progress of medicine. |
| Website | wellcomelibrary.org |
Coordinates: 51°31′33″N 0°08′06″W / 51.5257°N 0.1349°W The Wellcome Library is founded on the collection formed by Sir Henry Wellcome (1853–1936), whose personal wealth allowed him to create one of the most ambitious collections of the 20th century. Henry Wellcome's interest was the history of medicine in a broad sense and included subjects such as alchemy or witchcraft, but also anthropology and ethnography. Since Henry Wellcome’s death in 1936, the Wellcome Trust has been responsible for maintaining the Library's collection and funding its acquisitions. The library is free and open to the public.
Henry Wellcome began collecting books seriously in the late 1890s, using a succession of agents and dealers, and by travelling around the world to gather whatever could be found. Wellcome's first major entry into the market took place at the auction of William Morris's library in 1898, where he was the biggest single purchaser, taking away about a third of the lots. His interests were truly international and the broad coverage of languages and traditions is one of the library's strengths. Significant collections acquired during this early period included the library of Joseph Frank Payne, medical historian and librarian of the Royal College of Physicians, purchased in 1911, and the major part of the library of the Munich historian Ernst Darmstaedter, bought in 1930.
When Henry Wellcome died, the bulk of his estate and his collection was bequeathed to a body of trustees, who formed the Wellcome Trust. Their primary duty was to use the income generated by the company to support ongoing biomedical research, but they were also charged with fostering the study of medical history through the care and maintenance of the collections. A programme of sorting and rationalising therefore, was begun, which lasted throughout the 1940s and beyond.
...
Wikipedia