Exploring Wellcome Collection: A Social History of European Medicine

This module explores the social and cultural history of medicine in Europe through the rich holdings of Wellcome Collection. We will look at objects in the galleries, use primary material from the library and think about the ways in which sickness and health were understood within the context of broader currents of historical change. We will explore: ideas and practices of healing in the medieval and early modern period; the scientific revolution and medical Enlightenment; the eighteenth-century medical marketplace; quacks and ‘alternative medicine’; the birth of the hospital; scientific medicine; epidemics, infection and sanitary reform; women practitioners, midwives and nurses; medicine and empire; and eugenics.