Wellcome Library. The Wellcome Library is founded on the collection formed by Sir Henry Wellcome, whose personal wealth allowed him to create one of the most ambitious collections of the 20th century. Henry Wellcome's interest was the history of medicine in a broad sense and included subjects such as alchemy or witchcraft, but also anthropology and ethnography. Since Henry Wellcome's death in 1936, the Wellcome Trust has been responsible for maintaining the Library's collection and funding its acquisitions. The library is free and open to the public. Henry Wellcome began collecting books seriously in the late 1890s, using a succession of agents and dealers, and by travelling around the world to gather whatever could be found. Wellcome's first major entry into the market took place at the auction of William Morris's library in 1898, where he was the biggest single purchaser, taking away about a third of the lots. His interests were truly international and the broad coverage of languages and traditions is one of the library's strengths. Significant collections acquired during this early period included the library of Joseph Frank Payne, medical historian and librarian of the Royal College of Physicians, purchased in 1911, and the major part of the library of the Munich historian Ernst Darmstaedter, bought in 1930. When Henry Wellcome died, the bulk of his estate and his collection was bequeathed to a body of trustees, who formed the Wellcome Trust. Their primary duty was to use the income generated by the trust to support ongoing biomedical research, but they were also charged with fostering the study of medical history through the care and maintenance of the collections. A programme of sorting and rationalising was therefore begun, which lasted throughout the 1940s and beyond. The library's story during the later decades of the 20th century has been one of continuing growth and development. A significant addition during the 1980s was the purchase of the manuscripts, and about 10,000 printed books, from the Medical Society of London Library. The Wellcome Library has been renamed more than once. Over the years from the early twentieth century onwards it has been known, formally and informally, as The Wellcome Reference Library, The Wellcome Research Library, Wellcome Historical Medical Museum and Library, The Wellcome Historical Medical Research Library, Wellcome Institute of the History of Medicine, Wellcome Institute Library, Wellcome Library for the History and Understanding of Medicine. The Wellcome Trust's activities around the history of medicine, and on the public understanding of science, were brought together in 1998 to create a new Medicine, Society, and History Division. Recognising a wider remit than history of medicine only, the library is today part of Wellcome Collection and aims to promote both the history and understanding of medicine. A collection of books, journals and other print materials, and electronic resources, dealing with the history of all aspects of medical science and practice, as well as allied scientific disciplines, social sciences, and humanities-currently comprises more than 80,000 volumes in many languages, published from 1850 to the present day. The Medical Collection contains printed works of medical and scientific literature published from the 15th century to the present day, including rare books and ephemera. The collection comprises thousands of medical monographs, anatomical atlases, pharmacopoeias and some 20,000 items of medical ephemera, as well as a growing number of electronic resources covering a diverse range of subjects including popular science, consumer health, biomedical science policy, research ethics, science education and public engagement with science. Comprises 12,000 manuscripts and 4,000 printed books in 43 different languages and written on materials including paper, palm leaf, silk, ivory, metal, bone, bamboo and tree bark. A medical prescription from ancient Egypt, written on papyrus, is the oldest document in the Wellcome Library. The largest manuscript collection in the library is the Indic collection, which includes one of the largest Sanskrit collections outside India, numbering approximately 6500 items. Includes many unpublished European records dating from antiquity to the 20th century-the manuscripts contain material in 25 different languages. The 20th century archives concentrate on material in English.