Wellcome material on loan to the Science Museum
Stock reply
Dear [name],
Thank you for your enquiry regarding [ITEMS] in the collection at Wellcome Collection.
These are part of Wellcome Collection’s historical medical collections, which are managed by the Science Museum, London. The Science Museum has cared for these objects on long-term loan since the late 1970s. If you’d like to find out more about these particular items, the starting point is the Science Museum’s Collections Online catalogue.
The archive of the former Wellcome Historical Medical Museum (WA/MM https://wellcomecollection.org/works/k2fae5cz) includes accession and transfer records that can be used to identify an object and trace its history in the museum collections, from acquisition to transfer to another institution.
For more information on finding and accessing records please see our guide from the old website, via the internet archive, Researching Objects from the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum. The Accessions registers are available to view online https://wellcomecollection.org/works/fduju9cm.
Science Museum staff may also have additional information on file beyond what’s available in the public catalogue. Please feel free to include this email when contacting them. The contact email address is: [email protected] Please note that collections held by the Science Museum are now accessed via the National Collections Centre, which requires both 4 weeks' notice and an appointment. Further instruction can be found on their website: https://www.scienceinnovationpark.org.uk/research-our-collection/access
I hope this helps with your research.
Yours sincerely,
[Name and job title]
[Current standard Wellcome signature]
Dear [name],
Thank you for contacting Wellcome Collection.
The [ITEM] you are interested in is part of Wellcome Collection’s historical medical collections, which are managed by the Science Museum, London. The Science Museum has cared for these objects on long-term loan since the late 1970s.
[If you’d like to find out more about these particular items, the starting point is the Science Museum’s Collections Online catalogue]
Science Museum staff may also have additional information on file beyond what’s available in the public catalogue. Please feel free to include this email when contacting them. The contact email address is: [email protected]
Please note that collections held by the Science Museum are now accessed via the National Collections Centre, which requires both 4 weeks' notice and an appointment. Further instruction can be found on their website: https://www.scienceinnovationpark.org.uk/research-our-collection/access
I hope this helps with your research.
Yours sincerely,
[Name and job title]
[Current standard Wellcome signature]
The Science Museum Group has extended its loans out moratorium until April 2026. This means it is not considering any new loan out requests until October 2025. Full details on their website. The moratorium includes items in Sir Henry Wellcome’s Museum Collection, which is how our long-term loans out to the Science Museum is officially known.
Transit Lists of objects transferred to the Science Museum (WA/HMM/Tr/Abc/A.1)
All objects with numbers ≥ A600001 (e.g. A635004) were given these numbers at the point of transit to the Science Museum in the late 1970s/early 1980s.
The transit lists in WA/HMM/Tr/Abc/A.1 provide a concordance between this new 'A' number and any previous WHMM accession or registration numbers allocated to the object. There is some grouping of the numbers as indicated below. But the lists:
Are not in numerical order
May not be fully comprehensive
Are often difficult to read, being carbon copies of the originals held at the Science Museum
'NN' in the transit lists standards for 'no number' - where no previous WHMM accession or registration number could be traced.
Catalogue references for the A transit registers begin WA/HMM/Tr/Abc/A.1 followed by / and a number 1 to 14 as indicated below. You can find A numbers beginning with the 3 digits indicated in registers:
600, 608, 604, 606, 625, 626, 6t27, 628, 629
600, 601, 563, 564, 636, 635, 637, 638, 639, 650, 651, 652, 653, 654, 655
600, 610, 611, 612, 613, 614, 615, 616
616, 617, 618, 619, 620, 621, 622, 623
602, 603, 630, 631, 632, 633, 634, 635, 636
632, 633, 634, 635, 636, 637, 638, 639, 650, 651, 652, 653, 654, 655
651, 653, 654, 652, 656, 655, 635, 657, 658, 637, 659, 665, 666, 667, 668,
669, 670
623, 624, 645, 646, 647, 648
653, 655, 637, 204, 604, 657, 658, 659, 665, 658, 656, 666, 668, 669, 670,
667, 671, 672, 673, 674, 675, 676
653, 655, 656, 658, 604, 659, 657, 652, 653, 666, 667, 668, 669, 670, 671,
672, 673, 674, 675, 676, 677, 678, 679
604, 658, 659, 668, 667, 669, 675, 679, 674, 677, 670, 671, 668, 678, 680,
681, 662, 661, 623, 682
671, 678, 679, 680, 681, 624, 622, 625, 682
641, 642, 643, 645, 661
628, 629, 640, 643, 664, 660, 662
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