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Medicine Man

Closes 27 November 2022
  • Free
  • Permanent exhibition
Photograph of a man and a woman wearing face coverings exploring a museum gallery. The woman is wearing a yellow knitted jumper and a pair of blue jeans. The man is wearing a blue shirt and dark trousers. It is a dark gallery with spot lit exhibits and wooden panelled walls. The couple are standing side by side to the right of the frame in mid discussion about objects in a display case. To the left of the frame is the large glass display case they are looking at, containing several objects, from vases to models of the human head to small cabinets.

Sir Henry Wellcome was a collector who, through his agents, amassed well over a million books, paintings and objects from around the world, aiming to tell a global story of health and medicine.  

‘Medicine Man’ was our free permanent display of a small part of that huge collection. The exhibition showed extraordinary examples of the many ways in which people, through time and across cultures, sought to understand the workings of the human body, to protect themselves, and care for one another.

It included a wide range of objects relating to sex, birth and death, a unique collection of votive offerings, and a range of extraordinary anatomical models in wood, ivory and wax dating back to the 17th century. 

Colonial power shaped how the collection was put together and understood. In 2021 we installed a series of interventions in the exhibition in which artists and writers responded to an exhibit of their choice. Addressing the collection’s colonial legacies, their responses highlighted human stories that previous histories of health and medicine had hidden or ignored. 

Medicine Man closed on 27 November 2022, a significant turning point, as we transform how our collections are presented. Over the coming years, a major project will amplify the voices of those who have been previously erased or marginalised from museums, bringing their stories of health and humanity to the heart of our galleries.

Read our statement on the closure of the Medicine Man gallery.

Exhibition highlights

Vanitas, Europe, probably 18th century. Source: Wellcome Collection / Science Museum Group A99821. © Wellcome Collection. Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).
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Vanitas are works of art intended to remind us of the transience of life and the certainty of death. This wax and cloth example – modelled on Queen Elizabeth I – shows symbols of mortality, including a skull, and insects eating decaying flesh.

Tobacco resuscitator kit, London, England 1774. Source: Wellcome Collection / Science Museum Group A620378. © Wellcome Collection. Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).
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Doctors in 18th-century Britain believed that injecting tobacco smoke into the rectum could revive victims of drowning. This is one of the resuscitation kits placed along the River Thames for use on people dragged out of the water.

Napoleon Bonaparte’s toothbrush, France, 1790–1820. Source: Wellcome Collection / Science Museum Group A600139. © Wellcome Collection. Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).
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Even a world-famous general had to keep his teeth clean. Napoleon’s monogrammed toothbrush has a silver-gilt handle and bristles made of horsehair.

Charles Darwin's walking sticks, England, 19th century. Source: Wellcome Collection / Science Museum Group A4962. © Wellcome Collection. Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).
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Victorian naturalist and geologist Charles Darwin saw his skull-handled walking stick as a ‘memento mori’ – a reminder of human mortality.

Votive offerings, 400-200 BCE. Source: Wellcome Collection / Science Museum Group. © Wellcome Collection. Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).
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These terracotta replicas of hands, feet, ears and other body parts – known as votive offerings – were left in Roman and Etruscan temples and shrines by people praying for better health.

Domestic shrine with figures of 66 Shinto and Buddhist deities, Japan 19th century. Source: Wellcome Collection / Science Museum Group A199221. © Wellcome Collection. Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).
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Shintoism and Buddhism have been important religions in Japan since the sixth century. Domestic shrines such as this were mostly located in private homes – people used them to ask for divine help, healing and financial or personal success.

Acupuncture figure, Japan, 17th century. Source: Wellcome Collection / Science Museum Group A196762. © Wellcome Collection. Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).
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This Japanese papier-mâché figure is marked with acupuncture points and was used as a teaching tool. Popular in Japan for over 3,000 years, acupuncture is now a widely used therapy in many countries across the world.

The Virgin and Child of Guadalupe, oil on canvas, Mexico, 1745. Source: Wellcome Collection 44828i. © Wellcome Collection. Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).
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This painting depicts a so-called ‘Black Madonna’ – a 12th-century statue of the Virgin of Guadalupe in Extremadura, western Spain. Effigies of the Virgin of Guadalupe have often attracted pilgrims hoping for good health.

World War I amulets, England, 1914–18 (black cat). Source: Wellcome Collection / Science Museum Group A79978. © Wellcome Collection. Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).
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Good-luck charms such as these amulets were carried by British, Russian and Japanese soldiers fighting in World War I.

A French underground hospital at Verdun, Ugo Matania (1888–1979), oil on board, Italy, 1917. Source: Wellcome Collection 45950i. © Wellcome Collection. Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).
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Illustrator Ugo Matania created this image of soldiers being treated at a French field hospital for British news magazine Sphere. It gives an intimate glimpse into medical care for wounded men in the safety of an underground vault.