Inside our collections

Don’t judge a book only by its cover. Take a look inside, where decorative bookplates reveal stories that cross continents and centuries.

Discover how the design of Britain’s Nightingale hospitals, set up during the first national lockdown, is based closely on Florence Nightingale’s pioneering ideas for the most effective hospital layout.

There are around 15 iron corsets in museum collections around the world, including two in Wellcome Collection. Historians still dispute their purpose, but these intriguing objects hold clues about who would have worn them and why.

In a 1940s cartoon intended to persuade US troops to take malaria medication, the makers pitted a clodhopping soldier against a wily mosquito. If only Private SNAFU had followed the government’s advice.

These days we might not think that celibacy could kill you, but otherwise, medieval tips to maintain wellness still often ring true.

Pioneering epidemiologist Dr Alice Stewart realised how things in our daily lives could be as deadly as any infectious disease.

Could upper-class hair-hygiene regimes cause baldness, or does hair health depend on a blast of deadly mercury? Maisie Jenkins scours the archives for historic follicle care.

For millions across the world, the Paralympics is a spectacle of human endurance and physical achievement. But the Paralympian movement started life as a hospital rehabilitation programme, developed by neurosurgeon Ludwig Guttmann.

Cancer has a reputation as a modern disease, but these historical images show that it’s been part of our lives for centuries.

Brook Advisory Centres provided relatable sex-education information to young people, but their popular material sometimes resulted in criticism from politicians and the media.

There are clues in the margins of medieval manuscripts to suggest that disabled people in the past made long pilgrimages, and were helped on their journeys by mobility aids remarkably similar to those we have today.

An enduring enthusiasm for 18th-century gentlemen to defend their ‘honour’ by duelling placed doctors in a delicate position. Specially when they faced being shot themselves.

When we bring someone in hospital a bunch of grapes, we don't expect the grapes to work a miraculous cure upon them. But throughout history, wondrous healing powers have been attributed to the humble grape.

It’s been over 400 years since a Swiss alchemist theorised that foetuses could develop outside the womb. Claire Horn examines incubator technology past and present, and explores the possibilities recent prototypes might bring.

Discover the accessory that has captivated people for centuries, from seventh-century buddhas to 21st-century fashion subcultures.

Does everyone express joy in the same way and can you always recognise it? Find out the conclusions drawn by artists, philosophers and scientists who have studied the way humans express emotion.

David Jesudason’s relationship with alcohol is complicated. Here he explores how booze can shape our behaviour, describing how he’s matured from underage drinker to cask-ale connoisseur.

With its combination of rich, portable data and high-end style, this folding almanac could have been the medieval equivalent of the latest iPhone.