Wellcome uses cookies.

Read our policy
Wellcome Collection homepage
All
Stories
Images
Catalogue
Events

Stories

  • In pictures

Death around the world in ten objects

Death is many things to many cultures: violent, holy, frightening, calm, disgusting... or just a gateway to another life.

  • Article

Graveyards as green getaways

Stressed city dwellers have been visiting cemeteries in greater numbers since the start of the pandemic. Discover how, despite the constant reminders of death, graveyards bring visitors a sense of renewal.

  • Article

How we bury our children

Following her baby daughter’s funeral, Wendy Pratt found that visiting the grave gave her a way to carry out physical acts of caring for her child. Here she considers how parents’ nurturing instincts live on after a child’s death.

  • Article

Beating the bodysnatchers

When a rise in grave robbing called for strong measures, mortsafes became the unassailable solution. Allison C. Meier explores.

All stories (11)

Images

  • Dr. James Barry's headstone, Kensal Green Cemetery
  • 'The British Hospital and Military Cemetery at Scutari'
  • Cemetery, Happy Valley, Hong Kong. Photograph by John Thomson, 1868/1871.
  • Cemetery, Happy Valley, Hong Kong. Photograph by John Thomson, 1868/1871.
  • Cemetery of the Innocents in Paris. Wood engraving by F.L. Méaulle, .
  • The cemetery of Nagasaki. Wood engraving.
  • Hong Kong: the Protestant Cemetery, Happy Valley. Photograph by W.P. Floyd, ca. 1873.
  • Hong Kong: the Parsee Cemetery, Happy Valley. Photograph by W.P. Floyd, ca. 1873.
  • Cemetery, Happy Valley, Hong Kong. Photograph, 1981, from a negative by John Thomson, 1868/1871.
  • The entrance of Low Hill General Cemetery, Liverpool. Engraving by Robert Wallis after Thomas Allom.
All images (175)

Catalogue

All works (416)