New developments at the Wellcome Institute

After a diaspora lasting three years, the Wellcome Institute has been reunited under the roof of 183 Euston Road, in the refurbished Wellcome Building. The Library is still located on the second and third floors, with its reading room a central feature. The Library has expanded, however, with more open shelving for its reference collection and modern printed books, and a separate area (The Poynter Room) where rare books, manuscripts and other materials may be consulted. The computerization of the post1850 books and periodicals is progressing well and the catalogue of Early Printed Books is also being computerized. An exhibition detailing the Library's variegated history is currently on display in the Reading Room. The Academic Unit is now housed on the fourth floor, along with lecture and seminar rooms and an exhibition area. There are also exhibitions and an information centre on the upper ground floor, as part of the Centre for Medical Science, one of the current initiatives of the Wellcome Trust. The Trust's administrative offices are now in the Wellcome Building, along with a superb range of meeting facilities. The Institute's Academic Programme for 1992-93 is a full one with regular seminars, symposia and lectures. Coinciding with the Institute's return to the Wellcome Building is the establishment, from January 1993, of a new organization, the Friends of the Wellcome Institute. Under the Presidency of Lord Quinton, the Friends aim to attract a wide international membership among those concerned with the history of medicine. Among planned activities will be private views of new exhibitions in the Wellcome Building, special lectures and entertainments, joint meetings with societies, museums and libraries, and tours to places of historico-medical interest in the U.K. and abroad. A Newsletter will keep Friends acquainted with what is happening in the Institute and in the field more generally. Other special benefits include: