Discover one of London's hidden gems and enjoy an evening with a difference on the last Tuesday of every month. In the magnificent art deco building of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) a variety of special events are offered to the public, exhibitions, film screenings, book signings and building tours. Always with a different theme. June was play. July will be celebration and spectacle. When you are finished, browse the bookshop, have a coffee in the cafe or better still stop for dinner in the magnificent dining room with it's superb art deco features.
and some benefit will be gained by reading on… trust me. Yesterday I attended a programme of public health information films The Cinema of Disease held at the Open City Docs Fest, which is taking place in and around UCL 21st-24th June.
As a panel member, I had the opportunity to watch the films ahead of time and in fact it was no hardship to watch them again at the screening. They provided a fascinating journey with illustrations of the evolving production aesthetics of this genre. Science was in evidence and we all felt that we had learnt something we never knew (often with the benefit of imaging techniques using, for example, microscopy to make the hidden seen).
At the end, a lively discussion ensued facilitated by Claire Thomson, lecturer in Scandinavian Film & Head of Department; well do public information films have a role today? As of the 31st March this year, the coalition government closed down the Central Office of Information which became the successor to the war-time Ministry of Information in the UK. The UK-government appears to have no appetite to get involved in high profile health awareness. The devolution of healthcare means that we are more likely to seek health-care advice from the Internet. Fellow panel member Deenan Pillay (UCL Research Department of Infection) explained that clinical research in this area is moribund. In fact it was argued that greater public awareness has come from ‘seeding’ health messages within a less ‘high-brow’ context such as in soap operas – a good example of this was cited, having been scripted into the character of Mark Fowler in EastEnders; originally conceived no doubt to reflect the ‘real’ world but having a positive impact on awareness of this condition none-the-less. Cathryn Wood (Innovation Manager, DMI) added that this latter technique and the use of story, a narrative with an emotional hook, has proved instrumental in addressing maternal behaviour and infant mortality of 20% in some areas of sub-Saharan Africa.
Some health campaigns were remembered quite fondly, but there was a sense of unease around whether they were ever evidence-based; was the health campaign around HIV/AIDs; Aids Monolith, 1987 instrumental in changing behaviour? An example mentioned in the discussion, which did lead to changes in infant mortality; Life is a miracle, 1996 had a celebrity presenter, Anne Diamond, who was well known at the time and who gave added poignancy as she had lost her son to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
Public health information films are part of the conversation relating to health and well-being and part of the public understanding of science and biomedicine; it is an important part of the conversation. We have been digitising our moving image and sound collection to make this kind of material more freely available; films can be found in the Wellcome Film resource and on our YouTube channel - there are over 2000 subscribers and a growing number of lively comments to the films, particularly those relating to public health. Another port of call is the National Archives which has a selection of public information films online. There are many other online resources and I have taken the hard work out of sourcing these films by providing links so you can replicate the experience of watching the programme yourself.
Unseen Enemies Michael Clarke / 1960 / UK / 27’ Unfortunately, no online copies are in evidence; a 16mm print copy is the Moving Image & Sound collection and can be viewed onsite. There may be a number of versions as the catalogue and programme state 1959/60; from memory, the date on the screening copy credits was 1974.
A wet and cold evening on Southbank did not dampen the spirits of fans who were there to cheer the stars of RED at its premiere as part of the BFI film festival. Bruce Willis and Helen Mirren were charming and funny spending time signing autographs and shaking hands.
Seen above in a poster advertising the French version of A stitch in time (1963), in which he stars as the comic gadfly and victim of an overbearing medical establishment. Wellcome Library no. 674325i
What recording studio is this? Where did Pink Floyd perform their first gig? Where did Jimi Hendrix OD? Want to see film locations from Notting Hill, Alfie, Help? Where does Robbie Williams Live? Or maybe you'd like to see Elle McPherson's pad. That Banksy that cost £250,000. Where did Johnny Depp and Kate Moss bathe in Mumm?
Jamie from Celebrity Tours is a walking encyclopedia of pop culture history, film locations, celebrity hangouts and trivia. What has replaced the hippodrome? You're just going to have to ask Jamie.
BBC Scotland’s The Cell, which features stills from Wellcome Images, won “Best scripted programme” at the ABSW Science Writers’ Awards on Friday. Last week we wrote about the recent multitude of appearances our images have made on television this year. We showed one of the physiologist Theodor Schwann’s microscopy drawings featured in the programme, and its usage can be seen in the YouTube clip here, at exactly 6:00 minutes.
The embedded link to YouTube above may not display in all browsers.
Congratulations to the team who produced The Cell: Nick Jordan, Adam Rutherford and Jaqueline Smith. We also like to think our images were, in part, behind their success…
Photographs of books and manuscripts in Wellcome Library’s collections and images submitted directly to the photo library, Wellcome Images, are regularly featured on television programmes. Television viewers might have seen Wellcome Library material without even realising it.
Two of these programmes have been nominated for the Association of British Science Writers Awards in the “Best scripted or edited programme” category. The winners will be announced tonight. BBC Four’s Cell featured early imaginations of the cell and modern micrographs from Wellcome Images. The drawings shown here are taken from Theodor Schwann’s 1839 "Microscopic Investigations…" and were presented by Dr Adam Rutherford in the first episode of the three-part series.
The other nominated television programme, Darwin’s Dangerous Idea on BBC Two used engravings from the Library’s copy of Robert Fitzroy’s "Narratives…" of the Beagle’s voyage. Andrew Marr introduced a group of Tierra del Fuego natives with whom Darwin travelled on the Beagle, each illustrated by a portrait from the page shown here.
This year, photographs from Wellcome Images’ clinical collection were used on Channel 4’s Dispatches: Gun Crime to show the real effects of an injury caused by a bullet. Genius of Britain made use of Sir Christopher Wren’s plan of London as drawn by Gwynn. Back on BBC One, many of our images have been used in the Who Do You Think You Are? series. Most recently, two illustrations of 19th-century East London schools were used in an episode where actor Rupert Everett explored his family history.
Engravings of London slums were shown in BBC Two’s Victorian Pharmacy this month, which reconstructed life in a 19th-century pharmacy. Many more historical images have been used by the BBC this year in Children of the Revolution; The Story of Science; Victoria: A Royal Love Story; Mapping the World and Jenner’s Marvellous Medicine.
It’s not just the small screen where you’ll find our images. Creation, the 2009 film featuring Paul Bettany as Charles Darwin, used some phrenology images as part of the set. Clinical images were provided to the Harry Potter production team, who have used them to recreate wounds in the next instalment of the magical series. Finally, keep your eyes peeled for an eerie photograph from the historical collection appearing in The Awakening, a ghost story due in cinemas next year.
So here we are at the Royal Naval College in Greenwich. On the left is the Queen Mary Court where you'll find the chapel. The Painted Hall can be found in King Williams Court on the right. You knew that right? Ha - but did you know that Laura Croft Tomb Raider was filmed here in 2001. Or that Wolf Man was filmed here. How about The Mummy Returns or Spooks. Well now you do. Drop that bit of trivia into your next conversation about the place.
The other day I boarded Hogwarts Express, squeezed by the night bus, visited the third hand book shop, dodged the death eaters and more. Who said 'it was the food'. What was the context and where was he?
Harry Potter fans, Dr Who fans, maybe 007 is more your style. So many movies are made right here in London filmed on location that you can visit and get the inside story.
My voyage with Britmovie Tours was fabulous. Val was incredibly knowledgeable and enthusiastic. The small groups make the tours more intimate and give you a chance to ask loads of questions.
April finds us in the Moving Image and Sound Collection (MISC) department - the team behind the cataloguing, curation and public services related to the Wellcome Library's collection of historic and modern audio-visual material. The department is headed by Angela Saward who is supported by Ruth Blue, assistant curator. Covering both analogue and digital material, the collection includes audio-visual material from the late 19th century to the present day. This includes both archival collections (unique, historical titles) as well as contemporary content, to cater for all the needs of the history of medicine researcher.
The work the team does revolves around two main aspects: providing access to the resource for researchers, and curating the collection. Providing access can be done in a variety of ways, including the creation of catalogue records so researchers can find items; providing a viewing space so researchers can come to the Library and watch or listen to content; mounting digital content online for remote usage; and carrying out collections research on the behalf of users where necessary. Usage of the material ranges from scholarly researchers to content researchers for broadcast programs; people with a general interest in certain health topics to artists looking for content they can draw inspiration from, or include in their works.
Some of the most popular titles in the collection are the film titles War Neuroses (see the embedded clip above), Heredity in Man, and Conditioned reflexesand behavior. People may ask for information on or access to specific titles within the collection, or they may ask for titles related to subjects. For example, recently users have asked for films illustrating historical practices in psychoanalysis and sex education up to the 1940s.
The MISC team also maintain the collection, describe, assess, and add to it ("curating"). Up-to-date titles to purchase related to the history of medicine are gleaned from sources like the Radio Times and TRILT, (The Television and Radio Index for Learning and Teaching, the best source of UK television and radio broadcast data available on the web - available to FE/HE). Archival items are sought out from a range of potential sources, or accessioned as part of larger archival collections newly acquired by or newly catalogued by the Archives and Manuscripts department. One of the big challenges to curating the project, according to Angela, is "the wide range of legacy formats and players for the video content. Unlike film, video formats proliferated between the 1960s and 1980s, many of which are now obsolete." These have to be conserved and, where possible, migrated to current formats. Migration of such formats is prioritised according to how accessible (from a copyright point of view) the material is to the Library's users.
MISC's outlook as a department is largely externally-facing, and Angela supports the industry by sitting on the JISC Film and Sound Think Tank and on the panel for the Wellcome Trust Small Arts and People Award. Internally, MISC has strong connections to the Cataloguing Department and Digital Services. There is also a certain amount of cross-over with Wellcome Collection, who have highlighted a number of Wellcome Film videos on the newly revamped Wellcome Collection website.
Following the success of the Wellcome Film project (in particular the YouTube channel), MISC is now embarking on integrating new digital collections. Digitisation of 30 audio titles is currently in progress, and these will be made freely online as MP3s via the Library Catalogue. Titles include Man versus Virus, Heart Sounds and Murmurs (a 9 reel series), and Lumps in the Skin.
The other digital project is the large audio collection from One & Other - or the Fourth Plinth Project - which ran from July to October 2009 in Trafalgar Square. These are 15-30 minute recordings of interviews from all the participants, obtained by the Wellcome Library in the new year. 2,400 people participated, and each had a different reason for doing so. MISC's big challenge is to capture the essense of these "plinthers" in the catalogue records. A couple examples are now online.
We have blogged throughout this year about Wellcome Film, our project to digitise over 450 titles from our Moving Image and Sound Collection (MISC). However, an article in the latest edition of Wellcome History, offers a wider profile of MISC.
As the article notes, MISC illustrates the growth of film as a communication tool in the medical sciences and furthermore, is "an essential starting-point for any researcher, educator, student or browser interested in witnessing the evolution of medicine and health over the last 100 years".
The article is on page 20 of the Winter 2009 edition of Wellcome History, which is freely available from the Wellcome Trust's website.
Readers of this blog, subscribers to our Wellcome Film YouTube channel, and those who regularly use our film collection will know that digital video has been available online for several months now, with more titles added on a regular basis as the Wellcome Film project moves forward. This week we took a moment to celebrate 2 years of work on this project by holding an official Launch party at the Wellcome Library on 2 November 2009. The official press release is on the Wellcome Trust website.
Around 90 people attended, with a champagne reception to kick off. Richard Aspin, Head of Research and Scholarship at the Wellcome Library, introduced the project and the collection, saying that "Wellcome Film is the one of the most important digitisation project to date in our ambition to transform the user experience of The Wellcome Library."
Following Richard, our keynote speaker Jordan Baseman talked about his film project Nature's Great Experiment, a thought-provoking documentary on behaviour and genetics of twins. The film explores themes researched by Professor Terrie Moffitt and the Twin Studies Research Team at the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London. Jordan's project was partly funded by the Wellcome Trust. Jordan discussed one particular film that he discovered in the Library's Moving Image and Sound Collection, The Management of Twins in Pregnancy and Labour (1958), produced by the Wellcome Trust and filmed at University College Hospital, London. The film proved to be a catalyst for his project, providing much-needed inspiration to bring his ideas together. Before showing a short clip from his project, Jordan described the 1958 film during his speech as
"...an extraordinary document that at its heart focuses on the delivery of two sets of twins. It is a stunningly beautiful, profound and slightly disturbing document. It is disturbing because of the passivity of the mothers, but also because of the location and presence of the camera. The camera is not passive. It is an active instrument that records these momentous events from a privileged vantage point. The twins are literally delivered to camera: displayed for us to see."
Angela Saward, Curator of the Moving Images and Sound Collection at the Library, rounded off the evening by thanking the long list of people and organisations involved in the project - in particular the Project Advisory Board, JISC Collections who part funded this project, and Lucy Smee, who spent 17 months cataloguing, quality checking, and segmenting almost every single title. Angela then showed a film trailer created for the project by JCA tv, the facilities house that provided telecine, video recording, encoding and transcription services (see below).
Recent research has discovered that the naked mole rat (Heterocephalus glaber) has some interesting genetic characteristics that may lead to a cure for cancer. The fact they can live longer than any other rodent, combined with their inability to contract cancer, has piqued the interest of geneticists, and resulted in one discovery in particular that could be used to inhibit the growth of tumors.
The Wellcome Library holds a wide range of literature on genetic research and the history of cancer treatments and cancer care, including a number of films and videos on genetics and inheritance, as well as cancer, from the 1930s to the present day. The following video, Book of Life, from 2001 highlights the Sanger Institute and some of the genetic research carried out there. This video has been digitised as part of the Wellcome Film project (to watch, see below), and a transcription (PDF) is also available.
And the naked mole rat? Well, the Wellcome Trust featured a naked mole rat in its cine magazine Looking Around (1952) with an enthusiastic narrative by Gerard Hoffnung on its physical appearance and habits (to watch see segment 2). In 1952, of course, scientists were unaware of how significant this "extraordinary little animal" might prove to be in developing genetic therapies for cancer.
A new addition to the Wellcome Film project has been made: downloadable videos to keep, edit and watch as you wish from your own computer. The videos are H.264 (MPEG4) format and broadband resolution (2Mbps), easily playable by both Mac and PC users. To download, simply find the title you want in the catalogue searching the Wellcome Film homepage, and click on the 'Download entire title' link in the catalogue record.
All videos on the Wellcome Film website are made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commerial 2.0 UK licence, so go ahead and edit away! If you do use any of our videos in one of your projects, please let us know by leaving a comment on our blog or on our YouTube channel - we'd love to see them!
In other Wellcome Film news, our YouTube channel was featured on Wired's website bringing a new audience to these medical films. The most popular video as a result of this is now Prefrontal Tuberculoma, a 1933 surgical film showing the removal of a brain tumour caused by tuberculosis (not for the faint of heart - see below).
This week's free Wellcome Library Insight session, 'Medi-cinema' - on Thursday 1st October, 3pm - explores our Moving Image and Sound Collections.
The session offers an opportunity to find out how our curators preserve film and video, and also to view some of the fascinating films in our holdings.
Wellcome Film, the Library's film digitisation project, has a new home page. This page includes a dedicated search function for this collection. Some interesting keyword suggestions are: 'birth', 'diabetes' and 'brain tumour.' The search returns results from our online catalogue providing comprehensive descriptions of the titles and links to the videos.
Follow the highlighted links on the new homepage to see some of our video suggestions on topics ranging from the tsetse fly to Russian recreations of Pavlov's conditioning experiments.
The search term 'public health' will find public information films on medicine and health provided by the BFI National Archive, such as the following video Dying for a smoke (1967), a cartoon warning schoolchildren against smoking:
Wellcome Film also has its own YouTube channel with a selection of titles from our collections.
Last night hundreds of Harry Potter fans braved the rain, hail and thunder to catch a glimpse of the stars at the premiere of the half-Blood Prince in Leicester Square.
Lucy Smee, Assistant Curator in the Moving Image and Sound Department at the Wellcome Library, has been cataloguing moving images for the Wellcome Film project since June 2008. As part of her work, Lucy has seen every single title digitised so far, cataloguing and segmenting them for online delivery. A year on, and over 200 titles later, there are a few that she has found particular interesting, unique - or just plain weird:
'Neuromuscular block, 1956, is one of my favourites. Its delivery is amazing; possibly the only film in existence in which a clay model man in a dress suit and beard cheerfully delivers a rhyming poem about muscle relaxants.'
The film explains the theory and clinical practice of muscle relaxants using actual experiments and stop-frame animated cartoon characters. You can read more about Neuromuscular block on the Library's online catalogue or (for HE/FE subscribers) on Film and Sound Online.
Titled 'History of Medicine in Motion', the project aimed to "showcase and explore digital media presentations of the History of Medicine. In piloting new formats for delivering scholarly content and offering training in their development, the aim is to provide a platform for discussing the opportunities, problems and challenges that these media may hold for the dissemination of scholarly research".
'History of Medicine in Motion' utilised the knowledge of Prof Shigehisa Kuriyama, Harvard University, a skilled advocate in both using such resources in his teaching and in his encouragement of his students to do the same.
The project's concluding workshop, reviewed clips on the History of Medicine, submitted through an online competition.
The standard of the clips was extremely high, and given the content freely available from the Wellcome Library, it wasn't surprising that our resources featured heavily. Indeed, first prize went to Harriet Palfreyman's 'Picturing the Pox: A (Very) Brief History', which consisted entirely of images from our collections.
The workshop was a clear success, and all the clips that were submitted are worthy of attention. (Though twoclips in particular, catch the eye of this blog).
The Wellcome Film project was showcased at the 2009 Learning on Screen Conference, hosted by the Wellcome Library and run by the BUFVC on 7-8 April. Held in the Auditorium of the Wellcome Collection building on 183 Euston Road, London, the event focussed on digital video accessibility issues with a special session on new online video initiatives. The presentations showed that a range of new software applications have the potential to make video more and more accessible to people with disabilities. Of particular note was Sal Cook's introduction to the JISC's TechDis service, with information about software for developers that will maximise audio-visual accessibility.
The Wellcome Film project was presented by Christy Henshaw and Angela Saward on the second day, providing an overview of the project, its context in the Library's digitisation programme, choice of content, formats, metadata, and the various delivery methods utilised (open access via the Wellcome Library online catalogue, and HE/FE access via Film and Sound Online). A selection of clips was screened at the end of the presentation to illustrate the range of content chosen for inclusion in the project.
The Wellcome Film project has to date made over 200 titles accessible, including "Talk about Insulin", 1959 (below). This video shows an interview with Prof. Charles H. Best and Dr R.D. Lawrence. Prof. Best, along with Dr Frederick Banting, discovered the use of insulin in treating diabetes. Dr R.D. Lawrence was one of the first diabetics to receive insulin, and went on to carry out further research in this area.
Discover one of London's hidden gems and enjoy an evening with a difference on the last Tuesday of every month.
