History

The Wellcome Collection Library contains books, archives, artworks and manuscripts covering the cultural and personal dimensions of health and medicine.

The Library is free to join and has resources accessible remotely or on-site near Euston, London

The Library has a selection of academic databases, journal subscriptions and eBooks available online. Most can be accessed remotely, though a few can only be accessed from the Wellcome Collection Library.

In order to access the online colections you will need to verify your membership in person at the Library.  If you are heading up to London it is well worth your time to join the Wellcome Library which will give you access to databases such as EEBO and ECCO

Membership is free and available to anyone over the age of 18 who needs to use the collections.

It allows you to: 

• order items from the library’s closed stores to view in the Rare Materials Room  
• log in to the library’s computer network to access the online subscription databases 
• use the library scanners and printers for research purposes  
• book a study room

To get library membership you need to:

• apply online for a membership
• verify your email to confirm your registration
• take two forms of personal ID to the library admissions desk to complete your membership

The library at Wellcome Collection houses many collections, including:

• books and journals 
• ephemera 
• pictures (paintings, prints and photographs) 
• audiovisual material 
• archives and manuscripts.

On joining the Library, databases with remote access include

• 17th–18th-century Burney Collection newspapers

  The newspapers and news pamphlets, gathered by the Reverend Charles Burney (1757–1817) include more than 1,000 pamphlets, proclamations, newsbooks and newspapers from the period. Hosted by the British Library.

• 19th-century British Library newspapers

  A selection of 19th-century national and local British newspapers held by the British Library. All newspapers are full text and fully searchable, with full runs of the publication where possible.

• 19th-century UK Periodicals Series 1: New Readerships: Women's, Children's, Humour and Leisure/Sport

  This collection of almost 100 women’s, children’s and leisure/sport periodicals Children's, Humour and Leisure/Sport focuses on the birth of modern magazine publishing in the UK between 1800 and 1900. The database allows full-text searching and includes images, approximately 8,000 in colour.

• 19th-century UK Periodicals Series 2: Empire

  This collection of British magazines, journals and specialty newspapers on the theme of ‘Empire’ addresses the economic as well as the non-mercantile aspects of British expansionism.  

• ACLS Humanities E-book

  ACLS Humanities E-Book (HEB) is a fully searchable collection of over 4,000 books in the humanities, recommended and reviewed by scholars. Particular strengths of the collection are history of medicine, religion, archaeology, art history and folklore. 

• ACS Legacy Archives

  The American Chemical Society (ACS) Legacy Archives provides full text search and instant access to all titles, volumes, issues and articles published by the ACS from 1879 to 1995.

• BL 19th century

  Digitised versions of more than 65,000 19th-century books from the British Library collection, covering philosophy, history, poetry and literature.

• British Periodicals, Collections I & II

  British Periodicals provides access to the searchable full text of hundreds of periodicals from the late 17th century to the early 20th century. Topics covered include literature, music, art, drama, archaeology and architecture. British Periodicals Collection I contains more than 160 journals of the UMI microfilm collection: Early British Periodicals. British Periodicals Collection II contains more than 300 journals from the UMI microfilm collections English Literary Periodicals and British Periodicals in the Creative Arts.

• Cambridge Journals Digital Archive

  The Cambridge University Press Archive comprises 171 unique titles (plus some additional earlier versions of journals) from 1827 to approximately 1996. Some of the key subject areas covered are history, Asian studies, politics and economics, language, philosophy and religion, medicine and physical sciences.

• Early English Books Online (EEBO)

  Proquest’s version of Early English Books Online (EEBO) features page images of almost every work printed in the British Isles and North America from 1470-1700, as well as works in English printed elsewhere during that period. From the first book published in English through to the age of Spenser and Shakespeare, this collection contains about 100,000 full-text books of nearly 150,000 titles. New content is added once per year.

• Early European Books

  This is a collection of digital versions of all works printed in Europe before 1701, regardless of language, together with all pre-1701 works in European languages printed further afield.

• EBook Central

  A selection of e-books. Subject collections include: language and literature, medicine, philosophy, psychology, religion, science and social sciences.

• Eighteenth-Century Collections Online (ECCO)

  Aims to include every significant English-language and foreign-language title printed in the United Kingdom, along with thousands of important works from the Americas between 1701–1800. It consists of books, pamphlets, broadsides and ephemera. Subject categories include history and geography; fine arts and social sciences; medicine, science and technology; literature and language; religion and philosophy. Also included are significant collections of women writers of the 18th century.

• Electronic Enlightenment

  Electronic Enlightenment (EE) provides access to thousands of letters from 6,500 correspondents from the 17th to 19th century. Every conceivable subject is covered by the the greatest thinkers and writers and their families and friends, bankers and booksellers, patrons and publishers. EE also provides biographical information on over 5,000 individuals, with links to over 1,000 Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entries.

• House of Commons Parliamentary Papers (HCPP)

  This includes over 200,000 House of Commons sessional papers from 1715 to the present, with supplementary material back to 1688. HCPP has searchable full text for each paper, along with a detailed subject index.

• Illustrated London News Historical Archive: 1842–2003

  The Illustrated London News (ILN) archive gives full-text access to the entire run of the ILN from its first publication on 14 May 1842 to its last in 2003. It presents a vivid picture of British and world events, including news of war, disasters, royalty, social affairs, the arts and science.

• John Johnson Collection

  This collection provides access to thousands of items from the John Johnson Collection of Printed Ephemera, offering unique insights into the changing nature of everyday life in Britain in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries. Subjects covered include 19th-century entertainment, the book trade, popular prints, crimes, murders and executions, and advertising.

• Nature Publishing Group

  A collection of 21 Nature Publishing Group journals. Among the subjects covered are: life, physical and applied sciences, and clinical medicine.

• Nineteenth-Century Short Title Catalogue (NSTC)

  The NSTC Project was established in 1983 aims to provide increasingly complete listings of British books printed between 1801–1919. British books are taken to include all books published in Britain, countries colonised under British rule, and the United States of America. All books in English and all translations from English.

• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

  A collection of over 59,000 biographies describing the lives of people who have shaped British history and culture worldwide. Each biography offers detailed biographical information drawn from primary and secondary sources. Theme articles are also included.

• Oxford English Dictionary Online

  A guide to the meaning, history, and pronunciation of 600,000 words – past and present – from across the English-speaking world. As a historical dictionary, the OED is very different from those of current English, in which the focus is on present-day meanings.

• Periodicals Archive Online: JISC collections selection

  This is a subset of 80 full-text journal backfiles in the arts, humanities and social sciences from the Periodicals Archive Online collection, dating from 1891 to 2000.

• Punch Historical Archive 1841–1992

  A fully searchable archive of the British satirical magazine Punch. It includes approximately 7,900 issues (200,000 pages) from all volumes published, including special issues and almanacs.

• SpringerProtocols

  A database of reproducible laboratory protocols in the Life and Biomedical Sciences. Compiling protocols from Humana’s successful book series, Methods in Molecular Biology, Methods in Molecular Medicine, Methods in Biotechnology, Methods in Pharmacology and Toxicology, and Neuromethods, as well as from a vast number of laboratory handbooks.

• Times Digital Archive

  Full-text and full-image articles from The Times of London for the years 1785–2019.

• Who's Who & Who Was Who

  Who's Who contains biographical information on over 32,000 people, detailing birthdays, family histories, education, titles, careers, publications and creative works, personal interests, clubs and addresses. Who Was Who collects together the entries of more than 100,000 people who were included in the register but have died since 1897.

• World Biographical Information System

  The system includes four databases in various languages: American Biographical Archive (English), Archives Biographiques Françaises (French), British Biographical Archive (English), and Deutsches Biographisches Archive (German). It compiles biographical articles from printed reference works published from the 16th to 20th century.