Wellcome Collection

File:Wellcome Museum staff, c. 1915. Unknown photographer. The Wellcome Collection, London.jpg

File:Hall of Statuary, Wellcome Historical Medical Museum, Wigmore Street, London, c. 1926. Unknown photographer. The Wellcome Collection, London.jpg

Wellcome Collection is part of the Wellcome Trust, founded by Sir Henry Solomon Wellcome (1853–1936). An extensive and enthusiastic traveller, Henry Wellcome amassed a huge collection of books, paintings and objects on the theme of historical development of medicine worldwide. There was an earlier Wellcome Historical Medical Museum at 54a Wigmore Street, housing artefacts from around the world.{{cite web|url=http://archives.wellcome.ac.uk/DServe/dserve.exe?&dsqIni=wf.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqCmd=show1.tcl&dsqDb=Catalog&dsqPos=2&dsqSearch=(Hazard='museum')|title=Error|work=wellcome.ac.uk}}

The Wellcome Trust moved its administrative offices into their new Gibbs Building (designed for the Trust by Michael Hopkins and Partners) on the adjoining site in Euston Road, completed 2004: thereby creating an opportunity for a new public venue in the old Wellcome Building. The collection opened to the public in June 2007.{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/gallery/2007/jun/20/museums?picture=330056551|title=The Wellcome Collection|author=Photograph: Felix Clay/freelance|newspaper=The Guardian|date=2007-06-20}}

Due to its historical holdings, the Wellcome Collection is a member of The London Museums of Health & Medicine group.{{cite web|title=Medical Museums|url=http://medicalmuseums.org/|website=medicalmuseums.org|access-date=26 August 2016}}

Having been open since 2007, Wellcome Collection re-opened with additional public spaces in October 2015.

Melanie Keen took over as the director of the Wellcome Collection in 2019.{{Cite web |title=Melanie Keen appointed Director of Wellcome Collection |url=https://wellcomecollection.org/pages/XRXFGBEAACMANsiR |access-date=2022-12-08 |website=Wellcome Collection |language=en}}

File:Three leeches in the role of physicians attend a grasshopper in the role of the patient and announce a course of bloodletting Wellcome V0011722.jpg

The Wellcome Library provides access to collections of books, manuscripts, archives, films and pictures on the history of medicine from the earliest times to the present day.{{cite web|url=http://wellcomelibrary.org/|title=Wellcome Library - Home|work=wellcomelibrary.org}}

Located on the 5th floor of the Collection, The Hub is a space for researchers to collaborate, which "brings together different voices and expertise as part of an experiment to see what new knowledge can be created".{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=The Hub at Wellcome Collection|url=https://wellcomecollection.org/pages/Wuw2MSIAACtd3SsU|access-date=|website=}}

The first residents of The Hub, Hubbub, explored the dynamics of "rest, noise, tumult, activity and work" from October 2014 to July 2016.{{cite web|url=http://hubbubgroup.org/about/|title=Hubbub 'about' page}}

In October 2016-July 2018 Created Out of Mind, a group exploring dementia and the arts began their residency.{{cite web|url=http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/News/2016/WTP060262.htm|title=Exploration of dementia announced as second project of The Hub at Wellcome Collection|date=24 March 2016}} "Many of the group’s core members came from the Dementia Research Centre (DRC) at University College London. The team aimed to explore what dementia means to all of us, as well as challenging definitions of the condition".{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=Created Out Of Mind|url=https://wellcomecollection.org/pages/Wuw2MSIAACtd3SsQ|access-date=|website=}}

From 2018 to 2020, award-winning creative arts company and charity Heart n Soul took up residency at The Hub "exploring ideas like ‘normality’ and the value of difference between us all".{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=Heart n Soul at The Hub|url=https://wellcomecollection.org/pages/XBt4MBMAADNIlmtE|access-date=|website=}}

Refurbished in 2015 as part of the Wellcome Collection's 2015 renovation,{{cite news |last=Houghton |first=Lauren |date=23 February 2015 |title=Wellcome Collection to reopen after £17.5m refurb |url=http://www.citmagazine.com/article/1335117/wellcome-collection-reopen-175m-refurb| access-date=26 March 2016 }} the Reading Room is open to the public.

The collection is divided into several galleries. Being Human is a permanent exhibition opened in 2019 designed with the help of disabled artists and activists within the frame of the social model of disability, making it one of the world's most accessible galleries.{{cite news |last1=Marshall |first1=Alex |title=Is This the World's Most Accessible Museum? |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/06/arts/design/disabled-access-wellcome-collection.html |website=The New York Times|date=6 September 2019 }} Being Human explores what it means to be human in the 21st century, with a focus on personal stories, and is split into four parts: genetics, minds & bodies, infection, and environmental breakdown.{{cite web |title=Being Human |url=https://wellcomecollection.org/exhibitions/XNFfsxAAANwqbNWD |website=Wellcome Collection}} It includes art by Yinka Shonibare CBE, Latai Taumoepeau, Kia LaBeija, Mary Beth Heffernan, and Isaac Murdoch's "Water is Life" banner designed for the Standing Rock protests.{{cite web |title=Being Human Captions |url=https://wellcomecollection.org/pages/X3MY5hEAACQAoWCy |website=Wellcome Collection}}

File:One of the halls of the Wellcome Collection, London.jpg

The museum previously hosted Medicine Man, a permanent exhibition displaying a small part of Henry Wellcome's collection. The exhibition closed permanently on 27 November 2022 after running for fifteen years. While part of an ongoing programme to update how the collection is displayed, the closure was perceived to be a result of concerns over "racist, sexist and ableist theories and language".{{Cite web |title=Statement on the closure of our Medicine Man gallery |url=https://wellcomecollection.org/pages/Y4TdMBAAACMApB14 |access-date=1 January 2023 |website=Wellcome Collection |language=en}}{{Cite news |date=27 November 2022 |title=Wellcome Collection closes 'racist, sexist and ableist' Medicine Man display |language=en-GB |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-63772864 |access-date=1 January 2023}}

The main exhibition space hosts a changing programme of events and exhibitions. The space has included work by Felicity Powell and Bobby Baker. In 2024, an exhibition highlighting the exploitation of workers, and entitled Hard Graft: Work, Health and Rights, included work by Cindy Sissokho, Lindsey Mendick, Lubaina Himid, Louise Bourgeois, Kelly O'Brien and Shannon Alonzo.{{Cite news |last=Toynbee |first=Polly |date=13 September 2024 |title=All work and no play |work=The Guardian Weekly |pages=54-55}}

The building foyer and public areas usually include a 1950 work by Pablo Picasso{{cite web|url=http://www.culture24.org.uk/art/art53172|title=Bernal's Picasso Goes On Show In London At Wellcome Collection|work=culture24.org.uk}} (originally on a wall in John Desmond Bernal's flat in Torrington Square) and one by Anthony Gormley.{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/core/Slideshow/slideshowContentFrameFragXL.jhtml?xml=/arts/slideshows/feel/pixfeel.xml&site=|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130421104846/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/core/Slideshow/slideshowContentFrameFragXL.jhtml?xml=/arts/slideshows/feel/pixfeel.xml&site=|url-status=dead|archive-date=21 April 2013|title=Antony Gormley|work=Telegraph.co.uk|date=13 March 2007}} A figure by Marc Quinn{{cite web|url=http://www.whitecube.com/exhibitions/chemicallifesupport/|title=Exhibitions – White Cube|author=White Cube|work=whitecube.com}} was originally lying unprotected on the stone floor, then moved inside a glass case, and is also not currently on view. The collection includes 17,500 magic-medical amulets, talismans and charms picked up by Henry Wellcome in Islamic North Africa and elsewhere in the world.{{cite journal|first1=Gerrit|last1=Bos|author-link1=Gerrit Bos|title=Medical and para-medical manuscripts in the Cambridge Genizah Collections|journal=Med. Hist.|date=1 October 1995|volume= 39|issue=4|pages= 516–518|doi=10.1017/S0025727300060579|pmc=1037050|oclc=8139058359|issn=0025-7273}} (citing an article of Lawrence Conrad).

Wellcome Collection is digitising and openly licensing its collection; as of January 2020 it had made over 40 million images{{Cite web |date=January 2020 |title=Wellcome Collection Digitisation Strategy |url=https://wellcomecollection.cdn.prismic.io/wellcomecollection/0047856d-bba9-4ab2-81b6-a270f887a8fb_WC+Digitisation+Strategy+2020-2025.pdf }} from 325,000 items (books, manuscripts, archives, artworks, audio and video material etc.) available on wellcomecollection.org and via a range of third-party services.

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Category:Art museums and galleries in London

Category:Medical museums in London

Category:Museums in the London Borough of Camden

Category:Wellcome Trust

Category:Art museums and galleries established in 2007

Category:2007 establishments in England