Wellcome Historical Medical Museum (WHMM)

Opened 1914 in Wigmore Street, London. Moved to Euston Road 1932, Portman Square 1947, and back to Euston Road from 1954.

Wellcome Historical Medical Museum

Private museum of medical history, founded by Henry Wellcome in 1914 opened at 54a Wigmore Street, London. Displayed Wellcome's collections from across the world associated with health, illness, healing and medical practices, with some displays presented in a cultural evolutionary hierarchy that placed European culture at the top. WHMM was the permanent incarnation of Wellcome's 1913 temporary Historical Medical Exhibition.

Dates	Locations
[1911]-1932	54A Wigmore Street
1932-1947	Wellcome Building, 183 Euston Road
1947-1954	28 Portman Square
1954-1983	Wellcome Building, 183 Euston Road

After Wellcome consolidated his interests in one company in 1924, the museum became part of Wellcome Foundation.

The museum was refurbished and reopened in 1926, and the Willesden store acquired in 1927 to house the ever expanding collection. In 1932, the museum moved to the Wellcome Building on Euston Road and was closed to the public whilst the collection was unpacked, sorted and registered. During the Second World War, plans for new galleries continued to develop, but wartime restrictions limited what could be achieved. A temporary exhibition was held in October 1946 to celebrate the centenary of surgical anaesthesia. But during the war, the Wellcome Foundation offices had been destroyed, and in consequence the museum was moved out to 28 Portman Square in 1947, whilst the Foundation moved in to Euston Road (the Wellcome Historical Medical Library remained in Euston Road, along with the Museum of Medical Science). The museum now had greatly reduced space, and so shifted focus to temporary exhibitions on specific themes rather than a general, permanent display.

The museum returned to the Wellcome Building on Euston Road in 1954 but with much reduced space (half a floor instead of three whole floors), and so the policy of temporary, topical exhibitions continued. The lack of space also meant the staff gave more time to academic research. The Museum gained a little more space in 1959, and installed five historical pharmacies in the upper ground floor entrance hall.

In 1960, ownership of the museum and library collections was transferred from the Foundation to the Trustees, although administration was still undertaken by the Foundation. Whilst the library underwent major refurbishment, plans for the museum were put on hold until more space was gained by the removal of the Wellcome Laboratories of Tropical Medicine to Beckenham. As a result, the library's public profile and reputation began to eclipse that of the museum, and the Trust promoted the Chief Librarian, Noel Poynter, to the same level as the Director of the Museum, E.A. Underwood. Underwood retired in 1964 and Poynter was promoted to the position of Director of the Museum and Library, whilst the scientific staff of the museum were moved to form an academic unit under the responsibility of the Director.

In 1968 the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum and Library were replaced with the Wellcome Institute of the History of Medicine. In 1973, it was announced that negotiations had begun for the transfer of the medical collections to the Science Museum. Poynter retired in September 1973, and the museum began to contract. A Court of Appeal ruling in 1976 cleared the way for the dispersal of the museum collections, although the process of examining, re-cataloguing and moving each object to the Science Museum and to other recipients lasted until 1983.