Library Accessions
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Between 1899 and 2000, all library accessioning was recorded in handwritten, hard bound registers (WA/HMM/LI/Acc/1-13). As well as printed and published materials (including incunabula and rare books), the handwritten library accession registers included entries for manuscripts acquired prior to the year 2000.
Formal accessioning of library materials began in January 1899, although sequential numbering was not introduced until 1910.
Between 1981 and 2000, prints, paintings and drawings and some photographs were also accessioned into the library registers.
A separate accession register for archives and personal papers was begun in 1979. These accession entries were later input into Wellcome's collections management system for archives and do not form part of the dataset for Transcribe Wellcome.
The first library register starts on 10 January 1899, but notes of a few earlier acquisitions from December 1897 are inserted at the front. Although the entries in the register are not numbered, numbers were allocated and written on the top right hand corner of the flyleaf of each volume. Some of these numbers have been retrospectively written into the register by library staff at a later date.
Provenance information was usually also written in the books themselves at this date, in abbreviated form (vendor/donor and date), in the lower inner corner of the flyleaf or pastedown. There is .
December 1897 to January 1902
October 1902 to April 1910
5 figure accession numbers (e.g. 43129) were allocated in sequence, although often more than one accession register was in use at a time:
April 1910 to April 1916
23723 to 39117
April 1916 to May 1930
39118 to 52800
May 1929 to August 1934
52801 to 62800
May 1930 to June 1947
62801 to 72800
February 1931 to December 1935
72801 to 82800
January 1936 to March 1945
82801 to 92800
November 1942 to December 1953
92801 to 96489
From about 1913 to about 1946 accession numbers were written on the top right hand corner of the title page. Numbers previously written on the flyleaf were sometimes transferred to this position. Provenance notes were still sometimes written into the books well into the 1920s.
From around 1947 onwards, numbers were written on the verso of the title page. Sometimes numbers originally written on the recto were erased and transferred to the verso, particularly if a title page had to be photographed.
In January 1954 a new 6 figure numeration was introduced, starting at 300001:
January 1954 to July 1960
300001 to 306350 (following on directly from the 5 figure numbers in the same volume)
1960 to 1969
306351 to 317140
1969 to 1978
317144 to 329511
1978 to 1987
329512 to 334802
WA/HMM/LI/Acc/13
1981 to October 2000
334803 to 351518
Multiple lots at auctions were typically given a single accession number. One book was then itemised in the register 'and others', as in the sales catalogues themselves (although it isn't necessarily the same title that is itemised, and sales catalogue may list more than one in a lot).
Sotheby's 13 December 1898 Identified by A.
Puttick & Simpson 19-21 December 1898 Identified by HJ.
Sotheby's 12-14 July 1911
Sotheby's 30 January 1912
Sotheby's 17 May 1912
At the first sale the entire collection was purchased by Wellcome with a single bid in the name of Tobin (probably C.J.S. Thompson). An accession number and provenance note was written in every book, but the collection was never entered in the register. Blocks of numbers are missing from the register and clearly Mr Ealand, the assistant librarian, accessioned batches of Payne books as time allowed. (He was made redundant at the end of 1912).
Some books were also purchased at the 2nd and 3rd sales in 1912, and other books from these sales have been acquired since.
Several large collections were purchased in the early 1920s. As the staff then consisted of the Librarian and one student assistant, both part-time, the practice was adopted of assigning a single number to a whole collection.
Principal collective numbers:
42550 Debacq collection (French medicine and pharmacy) purchased 1919, accessioned 1923
42600 Dutch Royal Library duplicates purchased 1923
54800 Manchester University duplicates purchased 1930
55350 Zangrandi collection (Italian medicine) purchased 1928, accessioned 1930
95300 Leon collection (Latin American) purchased 1927, accessioned 1948
95400 Discards received via LA Medical Section exchange scheme 1949 onwards
308936 and 317494 Guerra collection (Spanish and Latin American). Most of the collection was until 1990 housed in the 'American Room'. Guerra books not shelved there were numbered 308936; books in the American Room was later number 317494.
311223 'French collection'. Miscellaneous material relating to French and Belgian doctors and scientists collected in the 1930s but held in the Museum until the 1960s.
323840 Crawford collection (Indian Medical Service) presented 1973
Sotheby's 5-10 December 1898 The says that Morris books are identified by the letter M. In fact Morris's bookplate was regarded as sufficient and M was written only in books without the label. The books also usually have a cutting from the sale catalogue pasted in.