Images from the photographic library

Images created and maintined by the Medical Photographic Library and later Wellcome Images, arranged into series beginning with different letter prefixes.

1929-c.1965

The Wellcome Trust's imaging and photographic services began as part of the Library, supplying images of materials from Wellcome's collections to readers, staff, publishers and picture buyers on demand. When the Wellcome Centre for Medical Science was established in 1992 a formal photography department was created called the Medical Photographic Library (MPL). It consisted of photographers, picture researchers and image cataloguers and had three main workflows. It provided access to existing images, fulfilled orders for new photography on an ad hoc basis, and documented events, people and activities related to the Wellcome Trust as part of the corporate photography workflow.

The MPL arranged its photographic collections into series with letter prefixes, such as the "M series" which consisted of images created by the former Wellcome Historical Medical Museum and inherited by the MPL.

In 1998, digitisation of the images held by the photographic library began, culminating in the launch of the online image service in 2002.

In 2007 the MPL was re-branded as Wellcome Images and re-launched on the move back to the Wellcome Building. Wellcome Images was wound down in 2017 and the photography services became part of Wellcome Collection..