As the Wellcome Trust turns 75, we pick 75 objects from its weird and wonderful collection
Pair of wax hands, c1950
Tattoos. Wellcome acquired 300 tattoos collected by a Paris surgeon who was active in the late 19th century. They are kept in boxes for fear that they were treated with toxic chemicals
Amputation saws
John Dee’s crystal. The Elizabethan mathematician and astrologer John Dee is said to have used this crystal, which he claimed was given to him by the angel Uriel, to foretell the future and cure disease. In 2004 it was stolen from a showcase in the Science Museum; it has been kept in store since being recovered
Glass perfume bottles
Van Gogh etching of French physician Paul-Ferdinand Gachet, 1890
Oil painting, c1890. A flowerpot falls on a man’s head in Rome; the victim dedicates this ex voto painting of the accident to the Madonna above him to give thanks for his recovery
Case of glass eyes, c1890
Tabloid medicine products by Burroughs Wellcome & Co
Double-focus X-ray tube, 1896
Chinese dentist’s signboard hung with human teeth
Enema syringes in brass, ivory, ebony and pewter
Pair of Chinese shoes for bound feet, 1870-1910
Sir Hiram Maxim’s 'Pipe of Peace and Maxim Inhaler'
Medicine chest. 'Tabloid' medicine chest taken on the 1933 Mount Everest expedition. Wellcome’s medicine chests accompanied explorers and pioneer aviators around the world, promoting the Tabloid brand as they went
Nelson’s razor and Napoleon’s toothbrush. The collection also boasts a whalebone walking stick owned by Charles Darwin, Florence Nightingale’s whistle, and a lock of hair said to be from King George III’s head
Obstetric phantom. This 18th-century Italian model for teaching obstetrics is known as a 'phantom' and is made from wood and leather, like a piece of furniture. The 'baby' inside is a cloth doll
Chinese porcelain fruit containing couple in sexual foreplay
Turtle-shaped Sioux amulets, US, 1880-1920
Tobacco resuscitator. An 18th-century device to revive victims of drowning by blowing tobacco smoke into their rectums. These kits were positioned along the River Thames, as lifebelts are today
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