Wellcome Collection

Wellcome Collection Free museum and library in London and online. Explore the past, present and future of health with us. Do ask questions, comment on posts and share your thoughts.
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Wellcome Collection is a free museum and library that aims to challenge how we all think and feel about health. Our online content aims to create opportunities for people to make connections between science, medicine, life and art. We want to spark conversation, inspire debate and encourage you to share your personal perspectives on human health and experience. But don’t be rude, hateful or insult

ing. Bullying of any kind isn’t allowed, and degrading comments about things like race, religion, culture, disability, sexual orientation and gender identity won’t be tolerated. We reserve the right to remove any material that we feel is inappropriate and we will ban individuals who persistently ignore these rules. If you notice any inappropriate comments, send us a message or report directly to Facebook. Find out more about Wellcome Collection: wellcome.info/About-Us

08/09/2026

Louis Wain gave cats their main character energy 🐈‍⬛

For us, Wain's work is about more than just cats. It opens up conversations about mental health, care, stigma and creativity (and yes, OK, cats too)

Alt text: This video tells the story of Louis Wain, the Victorian artist whose illustrations transformed cats from mousers into playful, human-like characters. We see photos of Louis and his cat Peter, alongside his artwork animated and displayed in Victorian-style frames on a patterned floral wallpaper. The video traces how Wain's art style evolved, from cartoon-like illustrations of cats throwing parties and riding bikes, to more abstract, psychedelic representations of cats in his later years, following his time in psychiatric hospitals.

Virgo is symbolised by the maiden and associated with practicality, diligence and an eye for detail.Famous Virgos includ...
03/09/2026

Virgo is symbolised by the maiden and associated with practicality, diligence and an eye for detail.

Famous Virgos include people who said "let me make some quick notes" and now have a 50-page document with a table of contents, footnotes and further reading at the end. (If we had a Virgo on the team, this post would gone out on the first day of Virgo season and not two weeks late).

Happy birthday month Virgos 💓

Alt text: These slides show Virgo and related astrological imagery from across our collection: a richly illustrated Virgo horoscope from The Book of Birth of Iskandar, celestial constellations depicting an elegant snail from a Persian manuscript, a medieval zodiac man linking the signs to different parts of the body, and an engraving of two sisters (echoing Virgo's "big sister energy"). The text on the slide lists five signs you that might make you a Virgo: 1. tenacious, 2. go-getter, 3. prepared for everything, 4. hard to impress, 5. big sister energy.

Credits:
Virgo - Horoscope from 'The book of birth of Iskandar". Wellcome Collection.
Constellation of Argo Navis (ship) from Persian Manuscript 373. Wellcome Collection.
Zodiac man showing the parts of the body controlled by the signs of the Zodiac, c.1483. Reference:
WT/D/1/20/1/157/98
Two sisters. Engraving by C.W. Wass after Sir William Ross R.A. Wellcome Collection. Reference: 27370i

02/09/2026

We're trialling different chairs at our latest exhibitions to give visitors with access needs more choice and flexibility.

Which chair works best for you? Let us know in the comments 💓

Come and try them for yourself at "Rudy Loewe: Intimacies of Care – Spaces of Grief and Possibility" and A"udrey Amiss: The Surviving Exhibitions", open now.

Alt text: Artist Rudy Loewe shows three different types of portable chairs available to use at Wellcome Collection's latest exhibitions. The first is a standard fold-out chair. The second is a plastic stool that telescopes down to a compact size with a carry handle. The third is a walking stick design that folds out into a seat and features a phone mount to double as a selfie stick.

01/09/2026

Buckle up for part 2 of our look into how gin sent Georgian London into a full-on meltdown.

Alt text: The reel focuses on William Hogarth’s Gin Lane (1751). We video pans right, showing a skeletal man slumped unconscious in the lower corner, his shirt open to reveal his ribs. Beside him are a basket, a bottle and a paper titled “The Downfall of Mrs Gin.” The shot then moves to the centre of the print, where a drunken woman sits on a staircase attempting to breastfeed while her baby slips from her arms and falls over the bannister. The video ends by cutting to Hogarth’s contrasting print B**r Street, zooming in on a cheerful, rosy-cheeked chap holding a large tankard of b**r with a long pipe jutting from his mouth.

Credit: Gin Lane. Engraving, c. 1751, after W. Hogarth. Wellcome Collection. Reference: 26961i
Credit: B**r Street. Engraving, c. 1751, after W. Hogarth. Wellcome Collection. Reference:26979i

Bank holiday plans on a medieval budget:1. Search house for loose change2. Sell your winter clothes3. Impulsive DIY4. St...
28/08/2026

Bank holiday plans on a medieval budget:

1. Search house for loose change
2. Sell your winter clothes
3. Impulsive DIY
4. Step on someone's toes (instant dopamine hack)
5. Go for a lovely swim
6. Replace expensive friends with dolls of your own creation

Alt text: These wonderful coloured woodcuts come from one of our most beloved books, the 1491 encyclopaedia of the natural world 'Ortus Sanitatis'. The illustrations show: someone scraping out residue from the bottom of a barrel, the crack of their bum cruelly exposed; a body-confident individual wearing only shoes putting coins into a pot; another underdressed person wielding a bucket and a knife; a smarmy-looking character standing on the feet of a small balding person (in fact demonstrating a method for testing the authenticity of a particular gemstone); some spaced-out people drowning merrily in a shipwreck; and a figure apparently absorbed in the crafting of some creepy dolls.

Credit: Ortus sanitatis. Public Domain Mark. Source: Wellcome Collection.

27/08/2026

In early 18th century London, society seemed to be falling apart. The culprit? Cheap booze and specifically, gin.

Alt text: A close up look at William Hogarth's 1751 engraving called Gin Lane, which satirically depicted the effect unregulated gin consumption was having on London.

Credit: A poor London street strewn with hopeless drunkards and lined with gin shops and a flourishing pawnbroker. Engraving, c. 1751, after W. Hogarth. Source: Wellcome Collection.

This is Florence Linton, 13 months old, pictured in 1892. Like many portraits in our collection, this one may have been ...
26/08/2026

This is Florence Linton, 13 months old, pictured in 1892. Like many portraits in our collection, this one may have been made as a study of a medical problem: in this case, Florence's skin complaint. Here - like in all the best pictures - the person shines through.

Alt text: This watercolour shows a young child with closed eyes and golden curls wearing a frilly white collar, with some parts of her face slightly speckled with blister-like features.

Credit: Head of a child with closed eyes and skin disease on the face. Watercolour, 1892.
Date: 1892
Reference:
672901i

13/08/2026

Our new display Tenderness and Rage explores HIV through stories of protest, care and resilience. It's free and open now at Wellcome Collection.

Alt text: This reel shows two brightly dressed visitors exploring the Tenderness and Rage gallery, a space full of photography, artwork and archival materials connected to HIV/AIDS in the UK and across the world.

12/08/2026

Artist Rudy Loewe introduces Intimacies of Care, Spaces of Grief and Possibility, their exhibition explores how racism shapes experiences of mental healthcare, while creating spaces for reflection, rest and collective imagining.

The exhibition is open now at Wellcome Collection.

Alt text: Rudy Loewe speaks to camera inside the exhibition at Wellcome Collection. The video cuts between close-ups of artworks, immersive installations, paintings, sculptures, and Rudy interacting with the space.

By remarkable coincidence the sun is roughly 400 times wider than the moon but also 400 times as far away from us meanin...
11/08/2026

By remarkable coincidence the sun is roughly 400 times wider than the moon but also 400 times as far away from us meaning that from Earth they appear the same size and we get to enjoy perfect solar eclipses.

[Alt text:

46229i: A print of the magnificent corona of the sun as photographed during a total solar eclipse over Sri Lanka in 1871.

46224i: Two emoji looking suns, one eclipsed, the other not, hanging over our fair home city with St Paul’s still a stone’s throw from farm land. Astronomers predicted this partial eclipse of 1748. 🌞 🌚

46557i: A 19th century British diagram of how solar eclipses work.

15708i: Throughout history and cultures, solar eclipses have been considered portentous events, here an eclipse has been projected back onto the cataclysmic Great Flood of the Old Testament.

7645i: Accounts in the gospels of the land being covered in darkness during the crucifixion of Jesus is here interpreted as a solar eclipse.]

Please say thank you to our digitisation team for keeping us in good supply of whimsical cat drawings. 🐱🐈 ✏️ Drawn by 11...
08/08/2026

Please say thank you to our digitisation team for keeping us in good supply of whimsical cat drawings. 🐱🐈 ✏️

Drawn by 11 year old Emily M. Madden in 1859, this sketchbook follows the imaginative advetures of her cat Mouton. Emily was the daughter of Sir Frederic Madden of the British Museum and Emily Sarah Madden.

This little treasure can be viewed at your leisure here: https://wellcome.info/mouton

[Alt text:

1. Mouton the cat plays the fiddle in a rollicking show to a crowd of ecstatic turtles. A ram and a pig accompany on trumpets while a little creature with a big beret watches from atop an elephant.

2. A cat with two kittens either side, all of them jumping up with their skipping ropes. A bird and a pig with a flagpole stand nearby.

3. A cute little cat and a cute little owl.

4. A dashing looking Mouton rides forth on a horse with the head of a rooster.

5. Major General Mouton in full dress uniform and a sword.

6. Mouton attends a cosmopolitan polka dance with an aardvark lady, an antelope and a lion.

7. A shocking violent interlude where one soldier in full plate armour pierces a halberd wielding enemy with his supernaturally long sharp nose.

8. The natural order of things: an aristocratic looking cat rides atop a shaggy dog.

9. Mouton dances a swinging dance with a finely dressed lady while a pig gives his trumpet playing his all in the background.

10. An aged Mouton rests in a comfy old armchair while attended to by a rabbit waiter.]

Before he died in 1670, Henry Jenkins reported his age as a grand old 169. But had he got his dates muddled up? Before r...
07/08/2026

Before he died in 1670, Henry Jenkins reported his age as a grand old 169. But had he got his dates muddled up? Before reliable records were kept, it was very difficult to know just how old anyone really was. You had to ask around - and there were apparently old men in the area who couldn’t remember a time when Henry wasn’t already ancient.

Stories like these were famous across England, with many other celebrated cases of people living well past the 122 years which is the official record today.

So was Henry really that old? Or have we just always liked to believe that just sometimes, people can survive decades more than seems humanly possible?

The Coming of Age is free and open now at Wellcome Collection.

Alt text: these slides show Henry, a mature bearded gentleman in blue smock and black hat, along with other portraits of supercentenarians from The Coming of Age.

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