The Year in Review | 2008
HICS ANEURYSM CHARIOT RETICENT PHOTOGRAPHY PRESERVATION LADYBIRD OPSONISATION PERSPICACITY SOLUTIONS MILLION MATERIA MEDICA NURSE FR RE REVOLUTIONARY INSPIRATION EMBRYO PHLEBOTOMY ANKLET LYMPH NODE OPERATION GLUCOSE GLORIFICATION ENGLISH PANELLING continuous process WER MICROSCOPE QUERIST ICONOGRAPHIC NEUROFIBROMATOSIS CURIOUS NUDE GENETICS CENTURY ANTHROPOLOGY COSMOPOLITAN PAINTING FORAYS C CEIPT UNUSUAL BULLET INFORMING DECORATED SORANUS JOINTS MONUMENTAL MUSCULOSKELETAL IMPROVING ROSES ANIMAL SUBSTITUTE KING ENLIGHTE N PLETHORA NOMENCLATURE ORIENTAL HIPPOCRATES SYLLOGISM MICROBIOLOGIST IMPROVEMENT ARCHIVES TRANSCRIPTION KNOCKOUT INTERIOR SOURC CANON the dangerous art of surgery FLOATING OPTOMETRY PROTEINS STEROID FIDUCIARY SOMMONTE SWIM CANOPIC ACADEMY CHALLENGE MYOCA NATIVE CONSERVATION BLING COUNTERPOINT PROPERTY FIFTEENTH BIRD DEPICTING SILVER COMPARTMENT INTESTINE CADUCEUS ALLOPATHIC JEWEL TIMEL E BIOHAZARD NEOCLASSICAL EARCAP IMPRESSED ANTRUM NOTEBOOK SCALABILITY CONFOCAL COMPASS CHASTITY BIOARCHAEOLOGY MASK FIGURE STILL DAL BRUSH SCIENTIST aural and visual landscape MENDELIAN ENIGMA BRAHMAN REVEAL FRAGMENT AMAZON COLOSSUS SCAR RENOVATION SHRUNKEN PPETITE ECORCHE FOREHEAD FRESCO BEZOAR ERYTHROCYTE ALCOHOL CARVING PAROCHIAL DEPICTION MAGNILOQUENT ABSCESS ORNAMENT FLOURISH C ES ABUNDANCE RECIPES DANCERS PUBLIC FILM ANAMORPHIC DIAGONAL DEVELOPMENTAL APOTHECARY WIND AMALGAMATION MUTATION EFFIGY ESOTERICA ELIXIR CLASS PHARMACOLOGY code that makes you human LIMB WITCH WOODEN STUCCOWORK OBSTETRIC ALBUMINOUS PARCHMENT BLOODLETTING S LE CONTINGENCY CONGENITAL RENAISSANCE SYMBOLISM MODERN MACHINE RITUALISED AMITOTIC DHARMA PLASTINATE PSEUDO PULSATING ANATOMY VEIN US PLASTINATION NUTRITION PHARMACEUTICAL SERVE SPHERES DEHYDRATE MOLOCHISM MINNESOTA RETROVIRAL EXQUISITE ABSTRACTION TATTOO intimate NG BODIES MALARIA EMBRYONIC MANUSCRIPT SNUFFBOX PHTHISIS ZYGOTE SHARING GARMENT SCENES EXPRESSION BABY DRUGS WHIMSICAL PHILANTHR CIMEN UNREQUITED SNORING ANOMALY ANTHROPOMORPHIC EMBALM WATERCOLOUR SCULPTURE STATUE SKELETON AMPUTATION TESTOSTERONE SILAS MA ESCENT DATA CLASSICAL GRAVE FIGMENT VITAMIN BIRTH HISTORICAL ICONOCLASTIC GROTESQUE CURIOSITY DREAM SMOKE MUSEUM concepts of beauty OCTOR ANATOMICAL KLEPTOMANIAC SKETCHING BRAIN HEAL ANTIDEPRESSANT SURGEON EASEL ARMS WILL STASIS FLUX ANTIBODIES CERAMIC TOOTH MUM TINNITUS TOILET ACUPUNCTURE DEAD SALVAGE MANIKIN STYLE MUSE HENRY SOLOMON WELLCOME NUCLEUS CALCIUM BRAND INLAY FLEETING MOLECULAR LEGACY EROTIC DISTILLATION masterpieces of the carvers’ art ANTIQUITY WATER VISIONARY SEQUENCING HUMANE HERITAGE MECHANICAL TRUTH PIO RICAL BONE MALADIES TOXICOLOGY DIGITISATION TRIBE VENTRICLES PSYCHIATRY CULTURE PHYSICK NURTURE PAIN TISSUE ARTEFACTS PARASITE RELIC GALV LEATHER LABORATORY GUILLOTINE EPISTEMOLOGY PROSTHETIC PHYSIOLOGY IMMUNITY PALATE OESTROGEN ORTHOPAEDICS SHIELD STETHOSCOPE OXYGE -off point SPECTACLE HOLY MEDICINE BLOOD POWER PATHOLOGICAL FORGET POLYMATH LISTERIA LIVES CABINET STONE HIPPOPOTAMUS FASHIONABLE MY NEONATOLOGY CURING ARCHITRAVE RENAISSANCE MAN HISTORIC ILLNESS FERTILISATION PARAGON COLOSSAL INVASIVE ANCIENT CRADLE HEARTBURN EXCA UISITION EXPERIMENT EPIDEMIOLOGY SEX BIOPSY COMPOSITION CORPSE CONCEALED MUSCLE ALIVE HEALTH MEMORY CHAIR TONGUE AGONIST ITALIAN GEN N GALEN George Mercer Dawson, Canadian scientist and surveyor NATURE walking collections of information SESQUIPEDALIAN ORGAN RAN GENE TOOTHPICK VESSELS VISTAS FUNCTIONAL DISEASE GROTTO DRAGON ARCHAEOLOGICAL FERTILITY STICK END ECCENTRIC RHETORIC PANORAMIC MYST TROSTOMY TABLET MELLIFLUOUS GLOW FREAKS INSTRUMENT GILDED SYRINGE NARRATIVE INSPIRING VAULTS PLAGUE PILL MASTERPIECE PHARMACY ARTER BO FANTASY HYSTERIA MASTURBATION ANTEDILUVIAN PALLIATIVE PHRENOLOGY HOMOEOPATHIC ARTERY IVORY TRACHEA HISTOIRES PRODIGIEUSES NEOTERI RE muscles and viscera exposed DIVERSITY DIAGNOSTIC BIENVENIDO UTERUS VIRTUE INSOMNIA PREGNANT STURGEON BEQUEST FEET GARGANTUAN HAIR OSITORY TALISMAN TEXTILE SLEEP APNOEA PIPE PERSONAL SHAVING DEPICTED BACTERIA ENGRAVING URINAL HEREDITY ULTRASOUND FRANCIS CRICK PHYSIC MINATION VERTIGO MULTIFARIOUS GUARDIAN EXECUTION EX-VOTO METICULOUS DEDICATED IMAGINATIVE hundreds of millions of short pieces SEEK BI ONES INTERGALACTIC FUNERAL ANIMUS OOTHECA ECLECTIC AVANT-GARDE RESEARCH AMULET PORTRAIT GEOMANCY TRANSPLANT RAZOR PHYSICIST DISSEC WOOD WADE INVESTIGATE VISCERA TECHNOLOGY DIASPORA XENOTRANSPLANTATION ORNAMENTAL VIVID DIURETIC PAINTED BOUND BLADDER PASSION BEHEM TIC PHANTOM FRAME FREE RADICAL BEAUTY TERRA INCOGNITA GLAZE BELT GASTRIC JUICE ANOREXIA LUMINOSITY CAVITY METHOD INVISIBLE WOMAN rare survival SPECIOUS TEACHING PUS ALCHEMIST EMPATHIC OESOPHAGUS MEDIA TRANSCENDENTAL STAINED PERUVIAN GLOBES CHAETAE REMEDIES HEREDITARY CHRO IES INMATE EMULSION SERENDIPITY OFFERING EXTREMITIES CHINESE YAGE COMPRESSED CHAMBER ANTHROPOMORPHISM TSANTA WALKING CATHOLIC STUD RATION CATALYST DEBUNK PYGMY SAW SINUSES STELLAR GENOME FIGURATIVE ATTACK PERCEPTION DROSOPHILA REASONABLENESS SUBLIMATE CINNAMON FANTASTICAL ELECTROTHERAPEUTIC FACILITIES alternative medicine BILLIONS ASYLUM POSTERITY TRANSFORMATION CONDITION ENZYMES AORTA SENSI M SAINT LINEAR LANDSCAPE YELLOW FEVER ZYGOSIS SHUAR GOSPEL SWALLOWING DISCOVERY BLEIGIESSEN TEXT REALIST SOUP CARDIOVASCULAR SABALOK MPASSION ALZHEIMER’S ROCOCO DYNAMIC CONNECTIVE ELECTRON GAMMA RAY NATURALISM GAS CHROMOSOME DOTTY UNICORN APOCALYPSE AIM FORCE ITATE THUMB PROGRESS MEDIEVAL VOMITING SHINGLES GROUNDBREAKING THINGS THELERETHISM GENETICIST ROSACEA FISSIPAROUS ASTROLABE CHEMOT RAWN ARCHITECTS SYNC AWESOME METLAKAHTLA LACHRYMAL HELIX HYDROCHLORIC ACID NOK CULTURE POLITICAL CEREMONY CHOLINESTERASE MOSAIC OS LEARNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPE BASES PULMONARY NEUROSCIENCE SUBLIMINAL INVITING SUPER FASCINATING NEURON HIEROGLYPHICS ANEURYSM SERVATION LADYBIRD OPSONISATION PERSPICACITY SOLUTIONS MILLION MATERIA MEDICA NURSE FROND NINETEEN MOLECULAR TORTURE REVOLUTIONARY IN
“ A great library contains the diary of the human race.”
ROND NINETEEN process of COIFFURE SCAMPER EN ENGAGEMENT CE SNAPSHOT ARDIUM LESS SCROLLS ZOONOSES FETUS N BIBLIOMANIA CONCEPTUAL SPEAR From the Head of the Wellcome Library A DELICATE SCOLD GESTATION NS WAR DYNAMO intimate biological ROPY CRAFT The cover of the Year We welcome further discussions AINVILLE in Review tells the story with you as we build our beauty SHRINE of CADAVER collections in this area. 2008 in a single image. MMY ALCHEMY The Library is increasingly 2008 was our busiest year ever in R TORTURE digital, in terms of its the Library (see our vital statistics collections and its services. ONEER ELABORATE sheet). We have enjoyed meeting Our staff are involved in VANIC BREASTS many of you at our programme getting our content online ENATED OBESITY of events (such as the Wellcome for a global audience, YRIAD GROWTH Image Awards, page 12) and taking part in a number AVATION ENIGMATIC workshops, as well as through of technically challenging our annual survey and via your NITALIA WONDER digitisation projects, some emails and letters to us. NDOM VENEER of which are managed on TERY STIRRING Within the Library, traditional roles the premises and some RIES UPPER continue to take on new forms and with partners elsewhere IC COLLAGEN completely new roles appear more (see pages 4–5). and more frequently. My sincere R CATACOMB At the same time we have thanks to the Library Advisory CIAN ARCHETYPES continued to acquire materials Committee, and to the staff of IOTECHNOLOGY from across all periods of history the Library, for their engagement CTION LUCIFERASE (see the highlights on pages with these changes and their MOTH BAROQUE 8–9). During 2008, we reviewed commitment to building the quality survivalour ofapproach royal and have now of the Library’s rich and diverse selected a new focus, targeting ONOLOGICAL FRIEZE collections. materials that document the DIO CHROMATOPSIA Frances Norton, foundations of genetic medicine N TONICITY Head of the Wellcome Library (see page 7). IBILITY KA CELESTIAL EPS RECEIVE TAXIS CHEQUERED C EMBLEMATIC OIL M CHARIOT RETICENT NSPIRATION
Introduction
Contents Towards a digital library
4
Bernard Spilsbury’s cabinet
6
Sanger’s notebooks
7
New in the Library collections 8 Perspectives
10
Wellcome Image Awards
12
UK PubMed Central
13
Publications
14
Book on front cover: Cityscape of Venice from the Nuremberg Chronicle by Hartman Schedel, 1493.
Wellcome Library: The Year in Review 2008 | 3
Towards a digital library
As part of its ongoing strategy, the Wellcome Library continued to make more content available online and interact more with its readers.
By increasing access to the Library collections digitally, we will be able to meet user expectations and provide better services, greatly expanding our research potential. The digitisation programme will: • provide 24-hour access to significant collections of still and moving images and sound, plus detailed catalogue data • enable new and innovative research e.g. programmatic linking of content to other related resources • allow content to be re-used in unique and different ways under the Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial 2.0 licence • preserve digital content as archive copies as well as for online access.
A 17th-century test case The Library holds an unrivalled and steadily growing collection of
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domestic recipe manuscripts, with nearly 300 volumes from the 16th to 19th centuries. As our most heavily used manuscript genre, the recipe books collection formed a perfect test project for the Library’s mass digitisation programme. Initially we have focused on the 75 17th-century volumes, since in this period the number of surviving compilations vastly increases and the social range of compilers and owners widens out. These recipe books contain more than food: at their richest they express their compiler’s sense of self, covering medical practice, religious and intellectual interests, cosmetics, and household and veterinary management. The disconcerting mix of culinary and medical recipes in Grace Acton’s 1621 volume, for example, is typical, her flamboyant recipe for roast peacock followed by an unappetising cure for bed-wetting
involving a mouse boiled in urine (above right). We plan to digitise the remaining volumes in future digitisation rounds, and the indexing of the recipe titles is currently in progress. View images of these manuscripts.
Web archiving The Library is also concerned with items that are ‘born digital’, as knowledge is increasingly produced only in digital form. The British Library estimates that by 2020, 80 per cent of all research material will be available digitally. Today’s emails, datasets and documents are tomorrow’s research material, but only if they survive. We are actively engaged in seeking out digital archives from both our current and new donor communities. Saving digital materials, however, presents new challenges for libraries and
archives. Born digital material cannot simply be ‘put on a shelf’ and left: files created on computers are fragile, ephemeral and prone to catastrophic loss. The record of 20th- and 21st-century human scientific endeavour is being lost as documents are deleted, or media on which they are stored become obsolete. To ensure that future users will be able to access the digital archive we are building, the Library has procured a digital archiving application known as Safety Deposit Box (SDB). Developed jointly by Tessella and The National Archives of the UK, SDB acts as a repository within which material is safely stored and actively managed to ensure that it does not suffer unauthorised modification or deletion or be allowed to fall into obsolescence. This system will allow today’s computer files to be viewed in the future.
Web 2.0 tools We have set up several online tools to complement the digitisation strategy and make the Library collections more accessible online.
Top: Grace Acton’s recipes, 1621. Above: Sketch from Sarah Hudson’s recipe book, 1678.
• RSS feeds: a range of feeds for newly available material. • Wellcome Images on Flickr: using the Flickr photostream to show you more about selected content. • WellcomeFilm YouTube channel showcasing the Moving Image and Sound archives. • Wellcome Library blog highlighting the activities of the Library. Content on the blog varies from updates on services to news on media appearances by our staff, new materials and more discursive pieces on items of interest. Topics range from recipe books and pathology to French aesthetes and forehead-reading. The blog has been well received by a very diverse audience, with usage doubling each month. Perhaps the most pleasing comment was this one: “...it’s a good example of
transparency and the provision of access in practice. It feels a little as if you had a friend who worked there who sent on little titbits they came across during their work”. Right: Composite Armenian manuscript copied by the scribe Khachatur dpir, 1795. This illuminated page shows an astronomer gazing through a telescope.
ONLINE REGISTRATION We have introduced e-registration, enabling prospective members to register and get instant access to selected privileges. Then you can log in to your account to request material from stores before your first visit, view your requests, save catalogue searches, sign up for weekly email alerts based on your searches and book online to attend our free workshops.
Wellcome Library: The Year in Review 2008 | 5
Bernard Spilsbury’s cabinet Forensic pathology, medical history and conservation come together in Sir Bernard Spilsbury’s case cards.
Personal papers of the late Sir Bernard Spilsbury, the ‘father of modern forensics’, were purchased at Sotheby’s by the Wellcome Library in July 2008. His cabinet of index cards is the largest known collection of his personal papers still in existence. Although only covering the years 1905–33, and representing an unknown percentage of his vast number of autopsies and other investigations (entered up in the famous ‘little black books’, which apparently do not survive), this appears to be a representative The acquisition of this collection for £14 000 generated a great deal of interest in the press, and it has already been consulted by a significant number of researchers
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sample of his work. It seems likely that the cards were extracted from his notes as the basis for the textbook that he intended to write (but died before completing). The cards include a significant number of cases in which death was the result of criminal action, in particular, numerous cases of illegal abortion and suspicious infant deaths. But the vast majority deal with sudden or unexpected deaths through natural causes or accidents. Spilsbury investigated many deaths from medical accident (in particular, anaesthetic accidents) and domestic, occupational or street accident. He observed perhaps the earliest identifiable cases of TNT poisoning among munitions workers during World War I (and other occupational diseases), as well as conducting autopsies on victims of zeppelin air raids. Several cases during
the 1920s mention previous war injuries, gassing or shell shock of the victims. He also performed a number of autopsies on victims of judicial execution, several of whose convictions he had helped to secure. These cards have been repackaged according to good conservation and preservation practice and a catalogue is now available online. The acquisition of this collection for £14 000 generated a great deal of interest in the press, and it has already been consulted by a significant number of researchers in the short time it has been available here. Read Ben Macintyre of the Times for more on this collection.
Sanger’s notebooks
The notebooks of Nobel Prize winner Fred Sanger, after whom the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute was named, are now in the Wellcome Library.
The archives of the Biochemical Society were deposited in the Wellcome Library in early 2008. The jewels in the crown of this collection are 35 laboratory notebooks used by Fred Sanger, Britain’s most decorated scientist. They record the experiments between 1944 and 1981 that won him two Nobel Prizes. Only three other scientists have received the Nobel Prize more than once, one of whom, Marie Curie, is already represented in the Wellcome manuscripts collection. The notebooks document the experiments at the Biochemistry Department at the University of Cambridge that led to Sanger’s elaboration of the molecular structure of insulin, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1958.
They also cover his later work at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology that resulted in the first sequencing of the entire DNA of an organism, a bacteriophage, and the award of a second Nobel Prize in 1980. The genesequencing techniques pioneered by Sanger formed the basis of the early work on sequencing the human genome, and he can be justly credited as the father of the Human Genome Project. The biochemistry underlying Sanger’s work is complex and not for the faint-hearted, but the notebooks are nevertheless very revealing of the quiet determination that led to such outstanding scientific success.
A US reviewer once commented that “Fred Sanger continues to bang his head against brick walls, and the walls keep falling down”. Comments in the margins of Sanger’s notebooks such as “a total waste of time…will start again” are testimony to the stamina and dedication of a remarkable laboratory scientist.
Above: Fred Sanger. Above left and right: Sanger’s notebooks. The one above reads: “Thus results crazy as usual…”
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New in the Library collections
The Library acquired 4139 items in 2008. Find out more about some of the highlights.
Paintings, Prints and Drawings A mad dog on the run in a London street: citizens attack it as it approaches a woman who has fallen over. Coloured etching by T L Busby, 1826. From his shop at 21 Charlotte Street in London, Thomas Lord Busby, an engraver, published in the 1820s a series of prints entitled ‘Busby’s humorous etchings’. No collection seems to have a complete set of them. They show the urban life of Georgian London in a humorous but not generally satirical way. Overindulgent gourmets, fussy doctors, French refugee ladies, confusing door signs and working-class education are some of the themes. The 1826 print of rabies (right), one of several of Busby’s prints purchased by the Library this year, is a time capsule telling us
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about the Georgian metropolis: a rabid dog roams the street; the street is surfaced with cobbles, which cause a woman to trip up; she was carrying a basket of apples; the street is paved on both sides, a recent sanitary
improvement; a broadside poster warning that a dangerous dog was at large had been posted on the wall but has become tattered; the men are permitted to carry guns and fire them in the streets; and terrified people take refuge
in a house with sash windows and a fanlight over the door, two features of the light and airy house that are still to be seen around Charlotte Street.
Rare Books Collection 18th-century hospital admission forms, Surrey Dispensary and Eastern Dispensary. The dispensary movement had its beginnings in London in the second half of the 18th century. Championed by the Quaker physician John Coakley Lettsom, a system of dispensaries was introduced where the poor could be treated as outpatients and even be attended at home by physicians of high rank. The dispensaries were supported by subscriptions, and subscribers
could then sponsor a patient. These printed forms are rare examples of how administration of the sponsorship system worked and the very beginnings of health service bureaucracy. The Library’s set consists of six forms. Three come from the Surrey Dispensary: one for admission (with a long list of rules), another for the patient to thank their sponsor on recovery and a third for the services of a midwife. Another set of three comes from the Eastern Dispensary: one for
admission, a second for giving thanks to the sponsor and a third to inform the sponsor that the previous patient has died and that there is a vacancy. Along with these is a small pamphlet laying out the plans for the Surrey Dispensary (see page 8), including a list of the subscribers.
Moving Image and Sound Collection Schizogony in P. knowlesi Malaria, 1969. This 16 mm black-and-white cine-film made in 1969 by Dr G A Butcher shows malaria parasites
Ephemera Victorian and Edwardian American trade cards, c.1880–1910. bursting out of their red cells and attempting to invade new red cells. The original film was shown at a meeting of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. Purchased earlier in the year, the work was part of a project concerned with the development of a malaria vaccine and currently there are trials of vaccines based on merozoite proteins. This was likely the first time anyone had filmed this process.
One major Library acquisition included a set of 60 attractive Victorian and Edwardian American trade cards and ‘freak show’ souvenir postcards, purchased in December 2008. Mostly in colour and approximately the size of a postcard, the trade cards were given away in pharmacies and have an appealing image on one side. The other side advertises popular medicines, such as Ayer’s Cherry Pectoral cough mixture (which contained heroin), Scott’s Emulsion, Parker’s Tonic and Capillaris hair preparation.
The ‘freak show’ postcards include bearded ladies, midgets, giants, morbidly obese people and a man
with elephantiasis of the legs. They were sold as souvenirs at the carnival or theatre where these people either performed a variety act or were exhibited, usually as part of a touring show. See the cards of: Scott’s Emulsion, Mansfield’s Capillaris, Ayer’s Cherry Pectoral, Parker’s Tonic and elephantiasis of the legs.
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Perspectives
Two Wellcome Library users tell their stories.
Andy Clark, independent researcher My own research is into the history of the flea circus, and I am particularly interested in the nature of the performances and the kinds of people who visited them. The problem with researching flea circuses is that very few people have written any books on the topic. Most of the information I’ve found is in the form of small snippets from a wide variety of books on other topics. Luckily, about the same time I started my research, Google launched its book search project. I started periodically searching for flea circuses or related phrases then trawling through the mass of books, eliminating those where the phrase was just a metaphor or there was nothing of interest. Sometimes the resulting book was available to read online and sometimes it was only available in
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“ Since discovering the Wellcome Library I always check to see if they have a book first before looking at other options.” ANDY CLARK
a library. In one case I discovered a fantastic description of a performance, by a watchmaker: “There on trestles he had set out a tiny Chaise with four wheels, this being mighty small; and then he coaxes a Flea out of a box and sets him to draw it.” This led me to a rare book called The Diary of a Surgeon in the Year 1751–1752 by John Knyveton, which was not available from any of the other local libraries. WorldCat suggested that there was a copy at the Wellcome Library that could be viewed. I got
in contact and arranged a visit. The registration process was simple and the online ordering system allowed me to maximise the time spent on site reading. And the staff are all helpful and friendly. The location is very convenient as I can make a trip in my lunch break or take advantage of the long opening hours. Since discovering the Wellcome Library I always check to see if they have a book first before looking at other options. Andy Clark has been researching the history of the flea circus since 2004 and writing up his findings online. He hopes to produce a book on the subject.
Katherine Rawling, postgraduate student My first experience of the archive collections at the Wellcome Library came when my Master’s dissertation loomed. At that stage the processes of primary research were still relatively new to me,
so advice from Library staff was greatly appreciated. From that small project, on femininity and madness, it became clear that the discourses of gender I’d been studying owed much of their theoretical basis to biological and medical concepts. That brief summer gave me a taste for the vast resources contained in the Library. Now, my doctoral thesis has Wellcome materials at its heart. As my research focuses on the visual construction of gendered madness through photographic “ The images database has been invaluable. It is due to the variety of records held in the collections that I’ve been able to combine several source types in my work” Katherine Rawling
sources, easy access to the images database has been invaluable. It is due to the variety of records held in the collections that I’ve been able to combine several source types in my work, from the private case books of Holloway Sanatorium to the published journals of the Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris. Being able to browse mid-19th-century clinical medicine volumes from the open shelves has added yet another dimension to my research. On a more practical level, the life of a research student is made significantly easier by the spacious, studious and comfortable surroundings, making the prospect of long hours of solitary research a little less daunting. Katherine Rawling is completing her doctoral thesis – ‘Visualising Mental Illness: Gender, medicine and visual media, 1830–1918’ – at Royal Holloway, University of London.
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Wellcome Image Awards 2008 From silkworm tracheas to meningitis-causing bacteria, our annual image awards celebrated the beauty of biomedical science. The ninth Wellcome Image Awards were held at Wellcome Collection in March 2008. Presented by Vivienne Parry – medicine and science correspondent for the Times, regular Radio 4 presenter and chair of the judging panel – the Awards celebrated the 15 scientists who created the 22 winning images. The images, which are judged on the basis of their quality, scientific content and visual impact, show the ways that traditional and cutting-edge microscopy and imaging techniques can visualise life and disease in graphic and striking detail. Anne Weston, for example, portrayed a ruptured blood vessel with a mutation in the Ephrin-B2 gene, an abnormality that is similar to those seen in the blood vessels that feed developing cancers. The awards attracted considerable press coverage, appearing in the
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UK on BBC 1’s Ten O’Clock News, with double-page spreads in the Guardian and the Times and features in national newspapers in France, Spain, Germany, Denmark, Romania and as far afield as South America and Australia.
TA KE A CLOSER LOOK... Browse 2000 years of human culture in pictures on the Wellcome Images website. View the Wellcome Images Flickr photostream.
The winning images were put on display in the Wellcome Collection atrium for three months, accompanied by a series of events that included an evening for the Wellcome Collection Club members and two microscopy workshops presented by Spike Walker, creator of two of the images, in which participants had the opportunity to use microscopes themselves. An exhibition of 100 winning images from 2008 and previous years was shown at Tokyo’s Miraikan Science Museum in May 2008, and toured Japan for the rest of the year.
Clockwise from above: Anne Weston with her winning image of a ruptured blood vessel; liquid crystal visualised under polarised light (Karen Neill); colour-enhanced scanning electron micrograph of C. difficile (Dave McCarthy and Annie Cavanagh).
UK PubMed Central
The Library continues to take part in enhancing UK PubMed Central, the life sciences journal archive. The Wellcome Library supports the Wellcome Trust’s open access requirements: an electronic copy of all research papers funded in whole or in part by the Trust must be made available from PubMed Central and UK PubMed Central as soon as possible, and in any event within six months of publication. In 2008, the Library worked with publishers to maximise the open access publication options for Trust-funded researchers, and managed the supply and development of the UK PubMed Central (UKPMC) service on behalf of the UKPMC Funders’ Group.
Major enhancement programme In May 2008 the Trust and the seven other members of the Funders’ Group granted £1.1 million to support an exciting programme of research and
development for UKPMC, following a successful proposal submitted by the British Library on behalf of the UKPMC consortium of suppliers. The three-year programme commenced in July 2008 and comprises four interlinked strands of work, which will be delivered on the UKPMC website: • enhancing information retrieval and knowledge discovery through the use of text-mining technologies • providing access to additional relevant content, focusing on clinical guidelines, technical reports, conference proceedings and other articles of value that are not included in traditional journal literature • increasing the scope of the bibliographic data searched through UKPMC, including the 18 million citations currently available in PubMed
•d eveloping extensive grantreporting functionality for UKPMC funders and those that they fund.
European goals In December 2008 a meeting was held at the Wellcome Trust, attended by colleagues from European biomedical research funding organisations, to explore the vision of a Europe PubMed Central, to establish a single Europe-wide repository for all European-funded peer-reviewed biomedical research papers. Much positive discussion ensued and there was a high level of interest among participants in taking these plans forward. To this end, the Library will convene a working group including representatives from all interested organisations to begin the detailed process of scoping a Europe PMC.
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Publications
Find out more about a few of the books that have been produced from the Library collections.
Medical London: City of diseases, city of cures By Richard Barnett, edited by Mike Jay (Strange Attractor, 2008) Medical London charts the many roles that diseases, treatments and cures have played in the city’s sprawling story, and revealed how London, in turn, has shaped the professions and practices of modern medicine. The project team worked closely with Library staff to utilise the full range of resources, both textual and pictorial. Medical London’s unique visual style was inspired by material chosen from Wellcome Images; its rich text developed through long hours spent in our reading rooms. Medical London is composed of three parts: Sick City, a volume of essays exploring some of the threads that medicine has
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woven through London; a comprehensive gazetteer, offering a definitive guide to London’s medical landscape; and six elegantly designed maps for selfguided walks across the city.
Living with Enza: The forgotten story of Britain and the great flu pandemic of 1918 By Mark Honigsbaum (Macmillan, 2009) Mark Honigsbaum’s Living with Enza tells the story of the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, and wonders whether society is any better placed to face the challenge of the next outbreak. At the height of the pandemic, policy makers were unprepared and medical science was at a loss to explain, or predict, how the disease would progress. The book documents the fight to control the disease and the
attempts to avoid a recurrence. In a particularly timely work given the recent swine flu outbreak, Honigsbaum looks at the lessons of the past, and charts how medical history can shape the policies of healthcare today. “Whenever I had a question about the virology of influenza, and the latest information about the virus’s genome, all I had to do was consult the most recent textbooks in the Wellcome’s medicine and science collections,” says the author.
Doctor of Love: James Graham and his celestial bed By Lydia Syson (Alma, 2008) James Graham has been widely termed the world’s first sex therapist, and he was certainly one of the most charismatic and complex characters of the 18th century. Seeking to bring the sublime to the lives of married
couples, Graham’s magnificent creation the ‘Celestial Bed’ at the Temple of Health tapped into all the excitement that the Enlightenment had to offer. With the aid of mind-altering gases, electricity and magnetism, Grant sought to promote the goal of perfect sexual union and, of course, perfect offspring.
History of Medicine: A very short introduction By William Bynum (Oxford University Press, 2008) OUP’s ‘VSI’ series has become an invaluable part of the publishing world. Their compact, almost pocket size allows you to take them wherever you go. With this new addition to the series, Emeritus Professor William Bynum allows you to dip into the history of medicine – and it is, in his own words, “a short book on a very big subject”.
Blood and Guts: A history of surgery By Richard Hollingham, foreword by Michael Mosley (BBC Books, 2008) Richard Hollingham’s book, which accompanied the BBC 4 series of the same name, provides a grand and often grisly tour of the history of surgery. Chapters on Galen and the gladiators he rebuilt, Robert Liston’s 30-second amputation, and the world’s first hand transplant complement the heroic tales of surgeon Archibald McIndoe and the Guinea Pig Club, the soldiers who suffered severe facial injuries during World War II. Hollingham writes: “If there is one single institution that made this book possible it is the Wellcome Library. I have spent many happy hours there, leafing through old books, papers and journals.”
SUPER MEDIC PANEL COSM IMPRO IMPRO STERO DEPIC NOTEB landscape FRESC RECIP ELIXIR ABRAC WAR D TATTO DRUG AMPU DREAM EASEL SOLO ANTIQ TRIBE EPIST HOLY SEX A EPID NATUR DRAG INSTR ANTED exposed TEXTIL ILLUM EMPO DISSE BLADD CAVIT PERUV COMP GENO alternative ZYGO ROCO PROG
R FASCINATING NEURON HIEROGLYPHICS ANEURYSM CHARIOT RETICENT PHOTOGRAPHY PRESERVATION LADYBIRD OPSONISATION PERSPICACITY SOLUTIONS CA NURSE FROND NINETEEN MOLECULAR TORTURE REVOLUTIONARY INSPIRATION EMBRYO PHLEBOTOMY ANKLET LYMPH NODE OPERATION GLUCOSE GLORIF LLING continuous process of reincarnation DRAWER MICROSCOPE QUERIST ICONOGRAPHIC NEUROFIBROMATOSIS CURIOUS NUDE GENETICS CENTUR MOPOLITAN PAINTING FORAYS COIFFURE SCAMPER EUGENICS LONG RECEIPT UNUSUAL BULLET INFORMING DECORATED SORANUS JOINTS MONUMENTAL MUS OVING ROSES ANIMAL SUBSTITUTE KING ENLIGHTEN ENGAGEMENT POSSET RESTORATION PLETHORA NOMENCLATURE ORIENTAL HIPPOCRATES SYLLOGISM M OVEMENT ARCHIVES TRANSCRIPTION KNOCKOUT INTERIOR SOURCE SNAPSHOT APOCALYPTIC VALUE CANON the dangerous art of surgery FLOATING OP OID FIDUCIARY SOMMONTE SWIM CANOPIC ACADEMY CHALLENGE MYOCARDIUM ALLEGORICAL ILLUMINATIVE CONSERVATION BLING COUNTERPOINT PROPER CTING SILVER COMPARTMENT INTESTINE CADUCEUS ALLOPATHIC JEWEL TIMELESS SCROLLS CHILD MONOCHROME BIOHAZARD NEOCLASSICAL EARCAP IMPRE BOOK SCALABILITY CONFOCAL COMPASS CHASTITY BIOARCHAEOLOGY MASK FIGURE STILL ZOONOSES FETUS PEOPLE ODDITY SANDAL BRUSH SCIENTIST aural landscape MENDELIAN ENIGMA BRAHMAN REVEAL FRAGMENT AMAZON COLOSSUS SCAR RENOVATION SHRUNKEN BIBLIOMANIA CANVAS ARTIFICIAL APPETITE EC CO BEZOAR ERYTHROCYTE ALCOHOL CARVING PAROCHIAL DEPICTION MAGNILOQUENT ABSCESS ORNAMENT FLOURISH CONCEPTUAL SPEAR BORBORYGMI B PES DANCERS PUBLIC FILM ANAMORPHIC DIAGONAL DEVELOPMENTAL APOTHECARY WIND AMALGAMATION MUTATION EFFIGY ESOTERICA DELICATE CHRYSALI R CLASS PHARMACOLOGY code that makes you human LIMB WITCH WOODEN STUCCOWORK OBSTETRIC ALBUMINOUS PARCHMENT BLOODLETTING SCOL CADABRA BRIDLE CONTINGENCY CONGENITAL RENAISSANCE SYMBOLISM MODERN MACHINE RITUALISED AMITOTIC DHARMA PLASTINATE PSEUDO PULSATING DYNAMO BORDERS HUMUNGOUS PLASTINATION NUTRITION PHARMACEUTICAL SERVE SPHERES DEHYDRATE MOLOCHISM MINNESOTA RETROVIRAL EXQUISITE OO intimate biological secrets CHALLENGING BODIES MALARIA EMBRYONIC MANUSCRIPT SNUFFBOX PHTHISIS ZYGOTE SHARING GARMENT SCENES EXPR GS WHIMSICAL PHILANTHROPY CRAFT SERENDIPITOUS SPECIMEN UNREQUITED SNORING ANOMALY ANTHROPOMORPHIC EMBALM WATERCOLOUR SCULPTURE UTATION TESTOSTERONE SILAS MAINVILLE BURROUGHS FLUORESCENT DATA CLASSICAL GRAVE FIGMENT VITAMIN BIRTH HISTORICAL ICONOCLASTIC GROTESQ M SMOKE MUSEUM concepts of beauty SHRINE CADAVER HEAD ANTAGONIST DOCTOR ANATOMICAL KLEPTOMANIAC SKETCHING BRAIN HEAL ANTIDEPRES L ARMS WILL STASIS FLUX ANTIBODIES CERAMIC TOOTH MUMMY ALCHEMY DECAY GERATOLOGY TINNITUS TOILET ACUPUNCTURE DEAD SALVAGE MANIKIN STY OMON WELLCOME NUCLEUS CALCIUM BRAND INLAY FLEETING MOLECULAR TORTURE VARIEGATED QUIRKY LEGACY EROTIC DISTILLATION masterpieces of the QUITY WATER VISIONARY SEQUENCING HUMANE HERITAGE MECHANICAL TRUTH PIONEER ELABORATE MAJESTIC METAPHORICAL BONE MALADIES TOXICOLOGY E VENTRICLES PSYCHIATRY CULTURE PHYSICK NURTURE PAIN TISSUE ARTEFACTS PARASITE RELIC GALVANIC BREASTS HUMAN MYTHOLOGY LEATHER LABORAT TEMOLOGY PROSTHETIC PHYSIOLOGY IMMUNITY PALATE OESTROGEN ORTHOPAEDICS SHIELD STETHOSCOPE OXYGENATED OBESITY LEECHES a jumping-off MEDICINE BLOOD POWER PATHOLOGICAL FORGET POLYMATH LISTERIA LIVES CABINET STONE HIPPOPOTAMUS FASHIONABLE MYRIAD GROWTH TREASURE TAB ARCHITRAVE Inscription over the door of the Library INVASIVE ANCIENT CRADLE HEARTBURN EXCAVATION ENIGMATIC ENEMA PRAYER ACQUISITION EX DEMIOLOGY at Thebes, ancient Egypt CONCEALED MUSCLE ALIVE HEALTH MEMORY CHAIR TONGUE AGONIST ITALIAN GENITALIA WONDER SCIENCE IMAGIN RE walking collections of information SESQUIPEDALIAN ORGAN RANDOM VENEER BRAINSTEM DENTIST GENE TOOTHPICK VESSELS VISTAS FUNCTIONA GON ARCHAEOLOGICAL FERTILITY STICK END ECCENTRIC RHETORIC PANORAMIC MYSTERY STIRRING AXON FEATHERS GASTROSTOMY TABLET MELLIFLUOUS G RUMENT GILDED SYRINGE NARRATIVE INSPIRING VAULTS PLAGUE PILL MASTERPIECE PHARMACY ARTERIES UPPER INSTALLATION PLACEBO FANTASY HYSTERIA DILUVIAN PALLIATIVE PHRENOLOGY HOMOEOPATHIC ARTERY IVORY TRACHEA HISTOIRES PRODIGIEUSES NEOTERIC COLLAGEN MOLECULAR TORTURE muscles exposed DIVERSITY DIAGNOSTIC BIENVENIDO UTERUS VIRTUE INSOMNIA PREGNANT STURGEON BEQUEST FEET GARGANTUAN HAIR CATACOMB INFLAMMATION REP LE SLEEP APNOEA PIPE PERSONAL SHAVING DEPICTED BACTERIA ENGRAVING URINAL HEREDITY ULTRASOUND FRANCIS CRICK PHYSICIAN ARCHETYPES FOCU MINATION VERTIGO MULTIFARIOUS GUARDIAN EXECUTION EX-VOTO METICULOUS DEDICATED IMAGINATIVE hundreds of millions of short pieces SEEK BIO OWERING CHALONES INTERGALACTIC FUNERAL ANIMUS OOTHECA ECLECTIC AVANT-GARDE RESEARCH AMULET PORTRAIT GEOMANCY TRANSPLANT RAZOR PH ECTION LUCIFERASE HELP ECUADORIAN WOOD WADE INVESTIGATE VISCERA TECHNOLOGY DIASPORA XENOTRANSPLANTATION ORNAMENTAL VIVID DIURETIC P DER PASSION BEHEMOTH BAROQUE CAPILLARIES HYPNOTIC PHANTOM FRAME FREE RADICAL BEAUTY TERRA INCOGNITA GLAZE BELT GASTRIC JUICE ANOREX TY METHOD INVISIBLE WOMAN rare survival of royal dna SCARIFICATION SPECIOUS TEACHING PUS ALCHEMIST EMPATHIC OESOPHAGUS MEDIA TRANSCE VIAN GLOBES CHAETAE REMEDIES HEREDITARY CHRONOLOGICAL FRIEZE AMPHORA AUTHORITIES INMATE EMULSION SERENDIPITY OFFERING EXTREMITIES CH PRESSED CHAMBER ANTHROPOMORPHISM TSANTA WALKING CATHOLIC STUDIO CHROMATOPSIA DUODENUM REGENERATION CATALYST DEBUNK PYGMY SAW OME FIGURATIVE ATTACK PERCEPTION DROSOPHILA REASONABLENESS SUBLIMATE CINNAMON TONICITY NARCOLEPSY ARTIST FANTASTICAL ELECTROTHERAPE alternative medicine BILLIONS ASYLUM POSTERITY TRANSFORMATION CONDITION ENZYMES AORTA SENSIBILITY HIPPOCAMPUS FORM SAINT LINEAR LANDSCAPE OSIS SHUAR GOSPEL SWALLOWING DISCOVERY BLEIGIESSEN TEXT REALIST SOUP CARDIOVASCULAR SABALOKA CELESTIAL PAPER BAZOMBO COMPASSION ALZ OCO DYNAMIC CONNECTIVE ELECTRON GAMMA RAY NATURALISM GAS CHROMOSOME DOTTY UNICORN APOCALYPSE AIM FORCEPS RECEIVE EMBROIDERED FA GRESS MEDIEVAL VOMITING SHINGLES GROUNDBREAKING THINGS THELERETHISM GENETICIST ROSACEA FISSIPAROUS ASTROLABE CHEMOTAXIS CHEQUERED
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