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Wellcome Library

Wellcome Museum of Medical Science


IDENTITY STATEMENT

Reference code(s): GB 0120 WA/MMS

Held at: Wellcome Library

Title: Wellcome Museum of Medical Science

Date(s): 1923-1983

Level of description: Collection (fonds)

Extent: 3 boxes

Name of creator(s): Wellcome Museum of Medical Science

CONTEXT

Administrative/Biographical history:

The Wellcome Museum of Medical Science (WMMS) was established by Andrew Balfour. The Wellcome Tropical Research Laboratories (WTRL) in Khartoum included a museum of material which he had collected in the course of its work, and he had also undertaken medical exhibitions in Dresden and Ghent dealing with selected tropical diseases. In 1913 Balfour returned to London to direct the Wellcome Bureau of Scientific Research (WBSR) and proposed the establishment of a Museum of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. In 1914 the museum was established, reporting to the WBSR for administration and finance.

The exhibits came from the Dresden and Ghent exhibitions, supplemented by a variety of largely zoological material relating to tropical medicine collected by Balfour and his staff during their overseas travels. In 1919 Dr George Buchanan, who had worked in the laboratories in Khartoum, was appointed first full-time Curator. He was succeeded by Dr S H Daukes who had organised the visual teaching at the Leeds School of Army Hygiene. The Museum was chiefly concerned with the prophylaxis of tropical diseases, with special reference to their cause, transmission and methods of prevention.

In 1920 the Museum of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene and the WBSR expanded and moved to premises on the corner of Euston Road and Gordon Street. In 1923 the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine was established and in 1924 the Museum of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene was re-named the Wellcome Museum of Medical Science (WMMS). In 1932 it relocated to the ground floor of the Wellcome Building at 183 Euston Road.

It was closed from 1939-1946 and re-opened after the war in a reduced size. Its activities dovetailed with the Wellcome Laboratories of Tropical Medicine which were established at this time as successors to the former WBSR. In 1985 the functions of the WMMS were taken over by the Wellcome Tropical Institute (WTI).

For further information see WA/MMS/PU/1.

CONTENT

Scope and content/abstract:

Papers of the Wellcome Museum of Medical Science, 1923-1983, comprising publications and the unpublished annual reports of the Wellcome Museum of Medical Science.

ACCESS AND USE

Language/scripts of material: English

System of arrangement:

Arranged in sections as follows: WA/MMS/PU Publications; WA/MMS/AR Annual reports; WA/MMS/AR/Vol Bound volumes; WA/MMS/AR/Rep Loose reports; WA/MMS/AR/Dra Drafts; WA/MMS/Fil Policy files.

Conditions governing access:

The papers are available subject to the usual conditions of access to Archives and Manuscripts material, after the completion of a Reader's Undertaking.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Photocopies/photographs/microfilm are supplied for private research only at the Archivist's discretion. Please note that material may be unsuitable for copying on conservation grounds, and that photographs cannot be photocopied in any circumstances. Readers are restricted to 100 photocopies in twelve months. Researchers who wish to publish material must seek copyright permission from the copyright owner.

Finding aids:

Detailed catalogue

ARCHIVAL INFORMATION

Accruals:

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

These records were transferred to the Wellcome Archives in 1986 from the Wellcome Foundation (Acc WI/86).

ALLIED MATERIALS

DESCRIPTION NOTES

Archivist's note: Compiled by Anya Turner.

Rules or conventions: Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions: June 2008


INDEX ENTRIES
Subjects
Cultural organizations | Cultural administration
History of medicine | History
Reports | Documents | Information sources
Science museums | Specialized museums | Museums
Medical research
Organizations

Personal names

Corporate names
Wellcome Museum of Medical Science

Places