Wellcome Collection

A reminder from Regency England that le****ns and bisexuals have always been here 🌈💓

Love-à-la-mode, or Two Dear Friends (c.1820) shows Lady Strachan and Lady Warwick sharing a kiss on a park bench while their husbands lurk nearby, flustered and outmatched.

“Little does he imagine that he has a female rival” says one of the women. But trust us, he knows...

Although satirical, this print offers a rare glimpse at intimacy between two women. Let us know in the comments if you'd like us to make a deep-dive reel about this work 👇

[Alt text: A Regency-era satirical print showing two well-dressed women sitting close together on a park bench, holding hands and kissing. Just behind them, their husbands peek out from a bush, looking shocked and flustered, with flushed faces and dramatic, slightly panicked gestures. The women appear calm and affectionate, while the men look completely thrown by what they’re seeing. One man says: "What is to be done to put a stop to this disgraceful business" and the other answers: "Take her from Warwick" (which we assume means take her from Lady Warwick, rather than get her out of Coventry).]

Credit: Lady Strachan and Lady Warwick making love in a park, while their husbands look on with disapproval. Coloured etching, ca. 1820. Reference: 46946i

Dear Cancers, our Thesaurus Thesaurorum sees you.

Go forth and find your Leo.

Discover more star signs in our collections here: https://wellcome.info/astrology 🌝

Alt text: we're looking at a selection of watercolour drawings from an 18th century manuscript called Thesaurus Thesaurorum, apparently a playbook on how to live life as an over-sentimental crab. Some examples of crab-like behaviour include: falling in love with Leos too quickly, finding extremely imaginative excuses for bailing on plans, and feeling like you're burning with the heat of a thousand suns all while looking like everything is fine. These traits are aptly illustrated by some bizarre, but beautiful drawings that appear to be alchemical recipes that involve slaying hydras, riding lions and burning a flask in the fire-y mouth of an angry decapitated head.

Credit: Thesaurus thesaurorum. Date: c. 1725. Reference: MS.4775

From the labour ward and neonatal intensive care unit of a hospital in Denmark, Heather Spears made hundreds of beautiful observational drawings.

In the process, she captured images of dads - dad's waiting, fretting, holding, helping, being there. Here are just a few of them.



Alt text:

1. A tiny baby with bright open eyes rests on dad's chest.
2. A woman in labour is supported by her partner, who holds her from behind.
3. A father tenderly holds his partner and the newborn baby enveloped between them.
4. A father looks attentively at his sleeping partner and holds her hand.
5. A new dad looks down into the face of the swaddled baby he holds in the crook of his elbow.

Credits:

1. A father with his premature baby. Heather Spears.
2. Labour and birth. Heather Spears.
3. Labour and birth. Heather Spears.
4 Labour and birth. Heather Spears.
5. A father holding his swaddled new born baby. Heather Spears.
Source: Wellcome Collection.

We have in our collection a Van Gogh, a Picasso. And then we have this...

It's an oil painting of a man trimming some nails, getting made fun of for his bald head... ironically, by another man with a bald head.

Credit: Two men, one cutting his finger-nails with a pair of scissors. Oil painting. Reference: 45059i

Alt text: An oil painting showing two men. One is focussing on trimming his nails with a pair of scissors, minding his own business. While the other is pointing at their head, looking at the viewer with a cheeky glint in his eye.

Making football accessible: 1920s edition ⚽

In 1921, this fan followed a match using a tactile football board to track the position of the players. Now, over a century later, blind supporters at the World Cup will be able to experience matches using haptic technology.

The tech has changed but the idea remains: football is for everyone.

Alt text: This black-and-white photo from 1921 shows a blind football fan in the stands smiling as he follows the game on a board representing the pitch. He's guided by the board's inventor, who moves pieces around to show the movements of the players.

Credit: A blind man at a football match in London, following the game using a board representing a pitch and players, assisted by the board's inventor. Photograph, ca. 1921. Wellcome Collection.

Subway Takes, tired of Hollywood celebrities, turns instead to history's most eminent medical innovators. Time travel might have affected Kareem's wardrobe.

[Alt text:

KH: What's your take?

Louis Pasteur: Heating milk makes it substanially safer to drink

KH: 100% agree

LP: Heating the liquid to just 60 degrees kills bacteria like listeria and e coli

KH: It's true, no one likes e-coli, there's no e coli fans out there

LP: Then you gotta seal it so more germs can't get in

KH: Germ theory? Now that's getting controversial

LP: But it's true! And guess what? They're going to name the process after me: pasteurisation

KH: Loving the confidence. Get your liquids pasteurised people!]

Check out Louis' soundcloud here: https://wellcome.info/pasteur