Wellcome Collection

In addition to its physical facilities, Wellcome Collection maintains a website of original articles and archived images related to health.

• Name — Wellcome Collection • Established — 2007 • Location — Euston Road London, United Kingdom • Type — Museum, library • Collections — history of medicine • Visitors — 550,000 per annum, as of 2013 • Founder — Henry Wellcome • Director — Melanie Keen • Public Transit — Euston Square • Website — wellcomecollection.org

• Illustration — Staff at the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum, c. 1915 • Illustration — Hall of Statuary, Wellcome Historical Medical Museum, Wigmore Street, London, c. 1926. Unknown photographer. The Wellcome Collection, London Wellcome Collection is part of the Wellcome Trust, founded by Sir Henry Solomon Wellcome (1853–1936). An extensive traveller, Wellcome amassed a huge collection of books, paintings and objects on the theme of historical development of medicine worldwide. There was an earlier Wellcome Historical Medical Museum at 54a Wigmore Street, housing artefacts from around the world. The Wellcome Trust moved its administrative offices into their new Gibbs Building (designed for the Trust by Michael Hopkins and Partners) on the adjoining site in Euston Road, completed 2004, thereby creating an opportunity for a new public venue in the old Wellcome Building. The collection opened to the public in June 2007. Due to its historical holdings, the Wellcome Collection is a member of The London Museums of Health & Medicine group. Having been open since 2007, Wellcome Collection re-opened with additional public spaces in October 2015. Sam Owen took over as the interim director of the Wellcome Collection in 2026, replacing Melanie Keen.

• Illustration — Three leeches attend a grasshopper, prescribing a course of bloodletting, cartoon by Jean-Ignace-Isidore Gérard c.1832. Wellcome Library collections. The Wellcome Library provides access to collections of books, manuscripts, archives, films and pictures on the history of medicine from the earliest times to the present day.

Located on the 5th floor of the Collection, The Hub is a space for researchers to collaborate, which "brings together different voices and expertise as part of an experiment to see what new knowledge can be created". The first residents of The Hub, Hubbub, explored the dynamics of "rest, noise, tumult, activity and work" from October 2014 to July 2016. In October 2016 – July 2018 Created Out of Mind, a group exploring dementia and the arts began their residency. "Many of the group’s core members came from the Dementia Research Centre (DRC) at University College London. The team aimed to explore what dementia means to all of us, as well as challenging definitions of the condition". From 2018 to 2020, creative arts company and charity Heart n Soul took up residency at The Hub "exploring ideas like ‘normality’ and the value of difference between us all".

Refurbished in 2015 as part of the Wellcome Collection's 2015 renovation, the Reading Room is open to the public.