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Collections

UK Medical Heritage Library

Inclined downward traction. From 'The Portable Gymnasium' by Gustav Ernst, 1861. Credit: Wellcome Library, London

The UK Medical Heritage Library is making the 19th century history of medicine freely available to all. Find out more about what's available and where to find it.

This is a very broad subject area and includes items about medical sciences, consumer health, sport and fitness, diet and nutrition and historical medical practices such as phrenology and hydrotherapy.

The Wellcome Library is contributing its 19th century collections to the UK Medical Heritage Library, along with 9 partner institutions:

Royal College of Physicians of London
Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh
Royal College of Surgeons of England
UCL (University College London)
University of Leeds
University of Glasgow
London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
King's College London
University of Bristol

The project is funded by JISC and the Wellcome Library. It will significantly extend the digital collections of the Medical Heritage Library, a consortium of American medical libraries.

Explore the digitised books and pamphlets

Items from the UK Medical Heritage Library can be found in the Wellcome Library catalogue and on the Internet Archive website. Content will continue to be added as it is digitised, and the goal is to ultimately digitise 15 million pages.

Browse the Wellcome Library catalogue

Browse the Internet Archive