Wellcome photographic library

This is a natural link for the Genetics and Medicine Historical Network, so we are pleased to give this note from Jenny Whiting on the role of the Photographic Library and its relevance to Genetics.

The existing collection of images already contains a number related to genetics, some of historical nature. We hope that our Network will encourage people who have such images to submit them to the Photographic Library, who have great expertise not only in documentation but such issues as copyright. Also they do not need to retain the original document once scanned.

Network members should feel free to contact Jenny Whiting and her colleagues direct- but do please mention the Network as a contact source, so we can monitor what effect we are having on submitting images.

Jenny Whiting has sent the following note:-

The Photo Library at the Wellcome Trust is a resource for academics, students and the commercial media and helps make the collections of the Wellcome Library for the History and Understanding of Medicine available to a wider audience. We do this by photographing many of the original items from the Library collections, holding these images in the Photo Library and making them accessible directly and through our web site (http://medphoto.wellcome.ac.uk). We are also actively collecting new images of biomedical and clinical science that reflect current research and new developments.

Readers of this newsletter may be interested in our activities from two points of view. Firstly, as we are constantly acquiring new images we would like to appeal to you, as people interested in preserving scientific history, to consider whether you know of images or collections of images that might be suitable for the Photo Library. They may be images of scientists, labs, notable research results or technical developments, in fact anything you consider worthy of bringing to light. With genetics being at the core of so much modern biomedical science and medicine we are very interested in having a continuum of imagery to follow the development of this area of science from its beginnings to current cutting edge research.

Secondly, you may be in need of images yourself, for lectures or books you are writing. In this case we may be able to help. The historical collections in particular are extraordinarily wide ranging and we also have a considerable variety of imagery of modern genetics. We have very knowledgeable staff on hand to help you find the right images for your particular purpose.

The Genetics and Medicine Historical Network is clearly an extremely valuable project and has the support of The Wellcome Trust. We hope that the Photo Library can also contribute to it, specifically by promoting images of our scientific heritage. Please get in touch - we would very much like to hear from you.

Jenny Whiting
Picture Editor, 
Wellcome Medical Photographic Library
210 Euston Road
London, NW1 2BE
020 7611 8347
j.whiting@wellcome.ac.uk