Home to medicine, life and art
The Wellcome Building
The original Wellcome Building was built to house Henry Wellcome's collections. It was designed as a place where professionals could come to learn more about the development of medicine and medical science.
Sir Henry Wellcome
Henry Wellcome set up a pharmaceutical company in 1880 with his college friend Silas Burroughs.
Using the wealth generated by this successful company, Sir Henry invested in leading medical research laboratories and also built up a large collection of objects related to medicine and health through the ages.
Wellcome Collection
The original Wellcome building has been restored and reopened to exhibit artefacts from Sir Henry's diverse collection.
The library
Also in the building is the library which holds an extraordinary collection of books, manuscripts, archives, films and pictures on the history of medicine from the earliest times to the present day.
The collection includes over 2 million items from an ancient Egyptian prescription to the papers of Francis Crick who was co-discoverer the structure of DNA.
Submitted by: Sophia Austin - Wellcome Collection, 04 July 2007
