Stories
- Article
The secret lives of Britain’s first Black physicians
Dr Annabel Sowemimo explores the web of connections between early Black British doctors, the role of empire in West Africa and the pernicious reach of scientific racism.
- Article
How slums make people sick
A newly gentrified corner of Bermondsey leaves little clue to its less salubrious history. But a few intrepid writers recorded the details of existence in one of London’s most squalid slums.
- Article
The birth of the public museum
The first public museums evolved from wealthy collectors’ cabinets of curiosities and were quickly recognised as useful vehicles for culture.
- Article
Beating the bodysnatchers
When a rise in grave robbing called for strong measures, mortsafes became the unassailable solution. Allison C. Meier explores.
Catalogue
- Archives and manuscripts
Unsigned paper arguing for lower duties on medicinal plants imported from the East to Great Britain
Date: Late 18th century - early 19th centuryReference: MS.7226/1Part of: Medicinal Plants: miscellany- Books
- Online
The evolution of Greater Britain's antiseptic house & town sewage-drainage systems of the twentieth century and after - for all time : with descriptions of the inherent defects of the 19th century systems and how to overcome those defects at great saving of expense : in an address to the President of the Local Government Board, pleading for a reform of the prevailing methods with explanatory, illustrative and critical appendices, copious drawings and diagrams, and full hydraulic, pneumatic and thermo-dynamical tables, corrected to the present date / by Isaac Shone.
Shone, Isaac.Date: 1914- Pictures
- Online
A bailiff (Mr Fixem, centre) calls on an affluent man (left) to enforce payment of a debt, assisted by his assistant (Bung, right). Etching by George Cruikshank.
Cruikshank, George, 1792-1878.Date: [1836]Reference: 32377i- Pictures
A doctor taking the pulse of his patient - convinced that his prescription of a clyster has been successful - unaware that she has eaten the clyster-pipe. Coloured etching by G. Grinagain, 1804.
Grinagain, Giles, active 1804.Date: 2 January 1804Reference: 11831i- Pictures
- Online
A man with an excruciating headache. Coloured etching by H. Cook, 1827, after M. Egerton.
Egerton, M., active 1824-1827.Date: April 1827Reference: 11885i