# Provenance ## Definition This element records information about the known history of an object's ownership prior to and including acquisition by Wellcome Collection. In addition to documentation held by Wellcome Collection, provenance information can be attained from other sources on or with the work itself including collector's marks, labels, framer's labels, carrier's labels. ## Content Record information about who previously owned the object, and when and how it was acquired by Wellcome. This could include the date and place of acquisition or purchase, previous owners of the object or objects, as well as information on how they were previously used, displayed and/or collected. {% hint style="info" %} The painting was purchased at auction by the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum from Foster's on 1st November 1922 as part of Lot 174. It was later accessioned by WHMM as R131/1947 on 9th May 1947. {% endhint %} The accession numbers may be repeated from elsewhere in the record ## Sources of Information ### Transcribe Wellcome Transcribe Wellcome is a project in progress to transcribe the digitised accession registers held in the collection, detailing items that formed part of the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum and Wellcome Historical Medical Library. The transcribed entries in QuickBase are a great resource for checking what provenance details are held for items on entry to the collection. Even if the entry has not been digitised for the item you are cataloguing, it will still take you to the relevant page in the digitised register where you can look up information. The database can be accessed here: --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://docs.wellcomecollection.org/visual-and-material-culture-cataloguing/metadata-framework/metadata-elements/provenance.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.