Overview search

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.

From rare bugs to exorbitantly priced plant parts, find out more about the artistic and medical uses of pigments from the past.

‘Doctor-nurse’ romances are a hugely popular trope. Agnes Arnold-Forster explores their history and surprisingly nuanced depictions of womanhood, hospitals and the welfare state.

An exquisite treasury of illustrations and objects, this book presents a visual history of some of the earliest medical systems and healing practices in the world.

Matt Drage questions how an ancient religious practice became a secular cure for stress.

Find out how a 17th-century compendium of the natural world came to present fantastical beasts –like dragons – as real, living creatures.

Our collections were first assembled In the early 20th century, following a racist, sexist and ableist system of cultural hierarchies. We have begun to change the ways we manage and use our collections.

Tradition and modernity come together in Wellcome Collection’s new exhibition.

Plunge into the intimate history of cosmetics, and discover how, for centuries, women have turned to make-up as a rich source of creativity, community and resistance.

A dark, fascinating and endlessly curious exploration of human and animal cannibalism.

Explore the history and health links of a pair of wooden spiked sandals from our collections. The sandals originated in India and were worn to demonstrate religious devotion.

Exploring good-luck charms that soldiers took to the battlefields with them.

Exploring the protective qualities of a necklace amulet and how it can link to good health.

Sweet, pungent, warm, woody: cloves smell and taste like Christmas. But there’s much more to this spice than that.

The story behind why somebody tried to sell Henry Wellcome a unicorn head in 1928.

Our collections are an incredible resource for all kinds of research, whether you are an artist or writer looking for inspiration, an academic researcher, or just curious about something in our exhibitions.

Medicine as ‘theatre’ began in the 16th century, when paying audiences enjoyed candlelight, live music – and a cadaver being dissected in front of them, all the in name of education.

Before the invention of X-ray in 1895 there was really only one way to accurately study the human body, and that was to cut it open.

Colonial botanical texts, as astonishingly beautiful as they are, may cast very dark shadows.

Medical practice might have moved on from when patients posted flasks of their urine for doctors to taste, but telehealth today keeps up the tradition of remote diagnosis – to our possible detriment.