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Students visit Wellcome Trust Library

A group of thirty students of the history of medicine, both undergraduate and postgraduate, recently took time out from their busy schedules for a day trip to London.

The morning was spent at the British Museum, viewing an exhibit in the Wellcome Trust Gallery entitled ‘Living and Dying.’ The exhibit looks at how people around the world deal with trouble, sorrow, need and sickness. The artefacts on display present a wide variety of beliefs and practices. Drawing on the collections of the Ethnographic Department, Living and Dying sets out to explores a variety of ideas through a selection of striking objects from around the world.

After lunch the students visited the Wellcome Trust Library, where they were given a tour of the library and shown a number of items from the bibliographic, print and manuscript collections, including a recipe book from the late nineteenth century, and an early treatise on plastic surgery. Of particular interest were letters written to the birth-control pioneer Marie Stopes, in which the authors respond to her published work with great passion.

While on the tour of the Library students were shown how to find materials using the online catalogue, and where in the library the various collections are held. The postgraduates in particular found the day a great help in preparing them for work on their theses.