An accession system was begun for museum objects in 1929. Accession records were kept on individual index cards or 'flimsy' slips (WA/HMM/CM/Inv/A.1-A.231), and assigned accession numbers were affixed to objects with one tag attached to the object, another on the outer paper wrapping.

This new system meant that more than one person could accession at a time (each being given a batch of numbers to assign to objects) and that objects, and batches of objects, could be briefly documented with additional detail being added to the card later. Much of the accession card data was copied from auction sale catalogues (and hence can be inaccurate or misleading).

A numbers were issued in a simple sequence of numbers from 1 to 500529, with gaps between A301931 to A400000, and 'undetermined others' (phrase used in WA/HMM/CM/Cla/1) between A400000 and A500495.

Until 1913 there was a shelfmarking system of numbers and letters to indicate bookcases and shelves. These were written in the top right hand corner of the flyleaf, next to the accession number. This numbering was used while the library was at Snow Hill and was retained unchanged when the Library was moved to Wigmore Street in 1911.

T.W. Huck, the first professional Librarian (1913-1916), started an alphabetical classification but didn't get beyond class A in applying it. His numbers appear in the centre of the front pastedown.

C.C. Barnard, his successor (1919-1921), devised a new classification retaining Huck's alphabetical outline. This was developed by subsequent librarians and used from the whole Library until 1946. These shelfmarks are about a third of the way down the front pastedown. (The Barnard Classification for Medical and Veterinary Libraries still used by Wellcome Collection, and a handful of other specialist libraries, was first published by C.C. Barnard in 1936, when he was Librarian at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.)

After the abandonment of the Huck/Barnard in-house classification the books were arranged by date and size and then alphabetically by author (or other heading) with no shelfmarks allocated.

Incunables were given their own shelfmarking system of numbers and letters. Originally this related to actual cases with the smallest books at the top (shelf 'a') and increasing in size to 'f' at the bottom, and books on each shelf in numerical order.

Subject headings

Some books have notes of subject headings at the end, in the hand of H.R. Priest, Assistant Librarian, 1906-1911.

Wellcome Historical Medical Museum [WHMM] began formally registering objects in December 1913, according to a simple sequence of numbers running continuously from R1 to R60514 (dated May 1933).

Registration details were handwritten into bound ledger volumes, and the assigned number painted on the objects in black or white ink (WA/HMM/CM/Acc/1-20). There were also index cards for selected R numbered objects (WA/HMM/CM/Inv/A.232-A.239).

Paintings were also registered in the museum registers between 1914 and 1933, sometimes (but not always) with the prefix 'P' substituted for 'R'.

No registration of objects appears to have taken place between 1933 and 1935.

A new registration system was introduced in 1935 for both new acquisitions and for objects already in the collection.

This sequence of registration numbers started at R1 each year, followed by the year of registration e.g. R1/1935, R2/1935 etc., then R1/1936, R2/1936, and so forth.

If objects already had A numbers, or R numbers from the old registration system, these were recorded next to the new registration number in ledger registers (WA/HMM/CM/Acc/21-56). There are also index cards for selected R year numbered objects: WA/HMM/CM/Inv/A.240-A.268; A.273. Objects, and batches of objects, continued to be assigned A numbers prior to registration.

On the objects themselves, old numbers were not usually obliterated, but crossed out with a single red line and the new numbers added in white or black ink close by.

Paintings were also registered in the museum new registration system between 1935 and 1980. Paintings were supposed to be given ‘P’ prefixes in place of ‘R’, although this doesn't seem to have happened consistently.

In Transcribe Wellcome, new registration numbers are standardised to include the R prefix and the forward slash notation, i.e. R2223/1936.

CC series

Paintings (although a few prints and drawings were also registered in this sequence).

System used by Daniel Pender-Davidson and continued by others to 1935.

Extant registers for CC4866 to CC9145 (WA/HMM/IC/1/25-27), and draft registers CC9146 to CC9778 (WA/HMM/IC/Not/1).

Index cards CC1 to CC9978 in two series, one handwritten by Pender-Davidson, one typescript; gaps in each series.

• Series 1: CC1 to CC7000 (WA/HMM/IC/3/A.1-A.12)

• Series 2: CC1 to CC9778 (WA/HMM/IC/3/A.13-A.37)

Later documentation of paintings

1935 to 1980

Between 1935 and 1980, paintings were registered in the museum's new registration system. Paintings were supposed to be given 'P' prefixes in place of 'R', although this doesn't appear to have been consistently applied.

1981 to 2000

Paintings and prints were accessioned into the library accession registers from December 1981 to December 2000.

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.

Pre-1910

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 a key to abbreviations used in provenance notes at the front of the first library register.

1910 to 1953

5 figure accession numbers (e.g. 43129) were allocated in sequence, although often more than one accession register was in use at a time:

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.

1954 to 2000

In January 1954 a new 6 figure numeration was introduced, starting at 300001:

Large collections

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).

Morris sale

Sotheby's 5-10 December 1898 The key in WA/HMM/LI/Acc/1 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.

Ashburnham sale

Sotheby's 13 December 1898 Identified by A.

Hammond Jones sale

Puttick & Simpson 19-21 December 1898 Identified by HJ.

J.F.Payne sales

1. Sotheby's 12-14 July 1911

2. Sotheby's 30 January 1912

3. 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.

Other collective numbers

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

PHO series begun by Pender-Davidson in December 1928. Continuous sequence to 1987. Negative numbers noted usually refer to Wellcome Images M sequence.

Registers PHO 1 to PHO 15277 (WA/HMM/IC/1/9-24)

Index cards PHO 1 to PHO 2234 (WA/HMM/IC/3/C.1-C.14)

Prints and Photographs accessioned before 1918

Some prints and photographs were accessioned, probably by the library rather than museum, before 1918, in a sequence P1 to P1874: WA/HMM/IC/1/4.

PD and PD Year Numbers

Batch accessioning of prints and drawings, some retrospective, begun by C. A. Earnshaw in February 1936 and continued by others up to 1982. Initially sequential; later reverts to 1-1 each new year.

Registers: PD 1 to PD 391 (WA/HMM/IC/1/28-31); Gap 1938 to 1959; PD 1959-1-1 to PD 1982-14 (WA/HMM/IC/1/32)

PR Numbers

Prints, mostly portraits; series constructed by Pender-Davidson between 1928 and 1933.

Registers PR 1 to PR 1104 (WA/HMM/IC/1/7). Later registers are missing but provenance details for PR1 to PR26508 were reconstructed by Earnshaw (with some gaps) in a report in WA/HMM/RP/Sta/3.

Later documentation of prints

1981 to 2000