Wellcome uses cookies.

Read our policy
Wellcome Collection homepage
All
Stories
Images
Catalogue
Events

Stories

  • In pictures

Sexy (medieval) times

Penis badges, the mysterious Office of the Night, and sneezing as a form of contraception – enter the surprising world of medieval sex. It wasn’t cold baths and self-denial for everyone, as Katherine Harvey explains.

  • Article

The ‘undesirable epileptic’

Abused in her marriage for being 'a sick woman', Aparna Nair looked to history to make sense of the response to her epilepsy. She discovered how centuries of fear and discrimination were often endorsed by science and legislation.

  • Article

How to play in secret

In secret games the strangers around you are playing too. They just don’t know it. Read on for some great ideas for undercover fun at work, school – or almost anywhere.

  • Long read

Primodos, paternalism and the fight to be heard

Journalist Florence Wildblood examines the case of Primodos – a conveniently quick but risky hormone pregnancy test that was prescribed in the 1960s and ’70s – and profiles two women at the story’s shocking heart.

All stories (37)

Images

  • Eyes for the blind. Man-midwifery exposed! Or, What it is and what it ought to be with broad hints to new married people, and young men and women / [M Adams].
  • A Roman married couple sit together holding hands. Heliogravure by P. Arents after E. Guillaume.
  • A young couple embrace and their companions weep and look hopeful. Aquatint by C. Hunt, 1853, after T. Onwhyn.
  • A woman storming out to the dentist after having an argument with her husband; he retorts that he hopes her tongue is fixed also. Wood engraving by R. Cleaver, 1894.
  • Two hunters with hounds have entered a bedroom to summon another hunter whose wife does not want him to leave. Mezzotint, 17--.
  • A young couple visit a savant who consults ancient volumes in order to provide counselling to them. Oil painting by Edouard-Henri-Théophile Pingret, 1833 (?).
  • A young couple visit a savant who consults ancient volumes in order to provide counselling to them. Oil painting by Edouard-Henri-Théophile Pingret, 1833 (?).
  • A young couple visit a savant who consults ancient volumes in order to provide counselling to them. Oil painting by Edouard-Henri-Théophile Pingret, 1833 (?).
  • A young couple visit a savant who consults ancient volumes in order to provide counselling to them. Oil painting by Edouard-Henri-Théophile Pingret, 1833 (?).
  • A young couple visit a savant who consults ancient volumes in order to provide counselling to them. Oil painting by Edouard-Henri-Théophile Pingret, 1833 (?).
All images (78)

Catalogue

All works (252)