Wellcome uses cookies.

Read our policy
Wellcome Collection homepage
All
Stories
Images
Catalogue
Events

Stories

  • In pictures

A brief history of contraception

From douches to diaphragms, and condoms to caps, discover the wide range of contraception methods people have used over the centuries.

  • In pictures

Sex and syphilis

Before antibiotics, syphilis unleashed centuries of misery, countered by desperate but largely useless remedies. With the spread of syphilis on the rise, it’s worth remembering what our forebears suffered.

  • Article

Sex in graphic novels

Sex and sexuality have long been explored in the history of the graphic novel.

  • Article

Public health campaigns and the ‘threat’ of disability

By continuing to represent disability as the feared outcome of disease, public health campaigns help to perpetuate prejudice against disabled people.

All stories (8)

Images

  • Caution against sexually transmitted disease. Colour lithograph after A. Games, 1941.
  • A man trapped in the letters VD (venereal disease), representing untreated sexually transmitted diseases. Colour lithograph, 195- (?).
  • Crusade against sexually transmitted disease by visiting the Museo Roca in Spain. Colour lithograph by Museo Roca, 193- (?).
  • An American soldier sweating with fear about contracting a sexually transmitted disease; warning American servicemen to use condoms. Colour lithograph, 194-.
  • A soldier eyes a prostitute; the same soldier later suffers from syphilis or another sexually transmitted disease. Colour lithograph by Blas, 1936/1939.
  • A soldier who has caught a sexually transmitted disease while on furlough sits on his bed in the barracks obsessed with his disease. Colour lithograph by Ferree, ca. 1944.
  • An American man in despair at the thought of infecting his wife and child with a sexually transmitted disease. Colour lithograph, ca. 1944.
  • A man approaching a woman in the street, with a warning against the danger of sexually transmitted disease due to sex with unfamiliar partners. Colour lithograph attributed to G.C. Schulz, ca. 1947.
  • A young man and woman sitting together on a park bench, with a warning against the danger of sexually transmitted disease due to sex with unfamiliar partners. Colour lithograph by G.C. Schulz, ca. 1946.
  • The black silhouettes of men and women with arrows and the message that AIDS is a sexually transmitted disease so stick to one partner and use condoms; a safe-sex and AIDS prevention advertisement by the Ministry of Health and Social Services, Seychelles. Colour lithograph, ca. 1996.
All images (846)

Catalogue

All works (2.7K)