Wellcome Medical Image Collection

Wellcome Images is a fascinating collection of contemporary and historical images from medicine and social history – it includes a Biomedical Collection, which “holds over 40,000 high-quality images from the clinical and biomedical sciences. Selected from the UK’s leading teaching hospitals and research institutions, it covers disease, surgery, general healthcare, sciences from genetics to neuroscience including the full range of imaging techniques.”

Even better, Wellcome has made the images freely available for non-commercial use under a pair of Creative Commons licenses. It also appears that they’re planning a bit of 2.0 by allowing comments on the images in the near future.

The ability to browse by topic is somewhat dismal, but the collection is well worth a look. The first image displayed here is a 16th century (estimated) iron chastity belt with padlock [credit: Wellcome Library, London]. Looks, comfy, no? The contrast of heart and flower decorations with the notion of an iron, padlocked chastity belt just floors me. The second is a Chinese woodcut illustration published in 1591 displaying acupuncture/moxibustion points for treating amenorrhea [Credit: Wellcome library, London, from the library of the China Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine, by Chen Yan]. Click on either of these images to view a larger version.

Thanks to medical librarian Anna Schnitzer for the tip [via a medlibs listserv].