Library and Museum

Records relating to the Wellcome Trust's collecting activities and Library and Museum in their various forms through time as well as their component departments. Includes records relating to Library and Museum collections; Library services, operations and strategy; Museum administration; exhibitions; visitor experience; the Information Service; and projects and programmes run by the Library and Museum.
For records relating to the management of the Library and Museum see WT/D/2 - Management of the Trust's divisions, departments and centres.

c.1920-2017

17 boxes, 1 outsize box, 2 outsize folders

The Trust's Library and Museum have existed in various forms throughout their history, operating relatively separately until the creation of the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine in 1968. In the subsequent two decades the Library and research work became the principal focus of the Institute and the museum collections were gradually transferred to the Science Museum in London. In 1999 the Institute was disbanded and replaced by the Wellcome Library for the History and Understanding of Medicine and the Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine, which included a permanent exhibition "Science for Life".

In 2007 following the expansion of the Trust and the refurbishment of its premises, Wellcome Collection opened at 183 Euston Road and included exhibition galleries as well as the Wellcome Library.

In 2017 the Collection and Library were brought together and Wellcome Collection was rebranded as both a museum and library.