Wellcome uses cookies.

Read our policy
Wellcome Collection homepage
All
Stories
Images
Catalogue
Events

Stories

  • Article

History of condoms from animal to rubber

Come on a journey from the first recorded condoms in the 16th century to the modern female condoms in the 1990s – and everything in between.

  • In pictures

The history of sanatoriums and surveillance

The sanatorium treatment for tuberculosis was a curious combination of sunshine, fresh air, exercise and constant surveillance.

  • Article

A brief history of ventilation

As ventilators continue to play an important part in helping very ill coronavirus patients, medical historian Dr Lindsey Fitzharris traces their development from the first attempts at mouth-to-mouth resuscitation through centuries of medical crises.

  • Article

Providing care across languages

When medics are taught in English but their patients speak other languages, effective communication becomes fraught. Niyoshi Shah explores the linguistic gaps between patient and doctor.

All stories (76)

Images

  • Doctrine of signatures : plant resembling a bee.
  • Acute pathologies, thoracic coagulation, Chinese lithograph
  • Section of the dorsal (?) rib cage showing multiply fractured ribs. Watercolour in grisaille by S. A. Sewell, ca. 1918.
  • Seventeen different pieces of sealed, precious medicinal earth known as 'terra sigillata'. Pen drawing.
  • John Coakley Lettsom, physician, with his family, in the garden of Grove Hill, Camberwell.
All images (5)

Catalogue

All works (153)