Photographing the Wellcome Collection
The Wellcome Collection is a collection of artifacts originally collected by Sir Henry Solomon Wellcome. He was born on August 21, 1853 and dies on July 25, 1936. In his early life his travelled and preached in a covered wagon peddling his wares. He sold a lot of invisible ink, which was simply lemon juice. He fathered one child named Henry with his wife Syrie, but his unhappy marriage lasted less than a decade and Wellcome eventually fought for custody of his son after his wife left him and married another man with whom she birthed a daughter. He became a British subject in 1910 following the crumbling of his marriage and was knighted in 1932 when he was also made a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. He died of pneumonia at age 82.
His primary interest was the study of medicine and he founded a pharmaceutical company with his friend and colleague, Silas Burroughs called Burroughs Wellcome & Company. Upon his death occurred the formation of the Wellcome Trust, which is one of the world’s largest medical charities. But his interest in archaeology drove him to collect many artifacts throughout his life. Wellcome spent many years digging in Jebel Moya and Sudan hiring in excess of 4,000 workers to help him excavate his sites. He was one of the first archaeologists to take advantage of and actively use kite aerial photography. Many of his photographs still survive in the Wellcome Library. He hoped to eventually start a Museum of Man where he would showcase medicinal knowledge of men and animals along with other exhibits featuring various parts of his collection which were not related to medicine. The Wellcome Collection most people are familiar with is his collection of medical artifacts which added up to over 125,000 individual objects. The collection as a whole totaled in over a million objects. A biography of Wellcome was written and published in 2009 by Frances Larson titled An Infinity of Things: How Sir Henry Wellcome Collected the World, which followed the completion of cataloging his personal and business papers.
Wellcome’s obsession with collecting artifacts was insatiable. He would buy anything related to medicine including things like Napoleon’s toothbrush, which is currently on display at the Wellcome Collection in London. Various parts of the Wellcome Collection have been exhibited at the Science Museum in London since 1976. Many of his medicinal artifact comprise of a collection called “Medicine Man” which has been available for viewing since 2007. His books, photographs, paintings, drawings, and other media collected from Wellcome is available through the Wellcome Library. Object not related to his medical exploits were grouped and spread throughout the world in smaller collections to be analyzed and studied by various museums, research institutions, and colleges. Due to the antiquarian behavior of many of Wellcome’s finds, information about them is incomplete. He did go about recording some information for a few of the objects, but prices were discovered on a few of them, meaning he may have tried to sell off parts of his collection at some point in his life.
Annie Lackey and I, Brianne Johnson, were tasked with photographing a collection of lithics from the larger Wellcome Collection. Much of the information about these objects is unknown. We worked in tandem with a pair of girls in class who were cataloging the objects from the Wellcome collection. The box numbers and temporary identification numbers for Pasadena City College were determined by the cataloging group. All of the subsequent labeling of the artifacts and images was based entirely on the numbering system put forth by the cataloging team. It was also verified that information was correctly written in the spread sheets by both members of the photography team, including myself, and the cataloging team in an effort to maintain consistency and accuracy concerning the catalog of the collection.
The photography process was split between Annie and myself. We took turns individually photographing each of the pieces from as many angles as seemed appropriate to give a complete picture of what the artifact looked like. Most of the objects were photographed on two or more sides and some, when relevant, had a blade view. We also included a cross section of each object that would benefit from having photographic evidence of one to determine thickness of the object. Each image contains a measurement card so that the object can be measured from the image alone if necessary. The card is a standard archaeological recordation card with boxes of one centime squared and boxes of two centimeters squared running ten centimeters in length.
Editing of the images, such as fixing cropping or eliminating hands propping up some of the objects, was my task in the group effort. Annie meticulously typed all of the information about the images and made sure our information corresponded with the cataloging group when compiling the catalog for the images themselves. After sorting through all the raw images that were taken to find the clearest versions of what was photographed, the images were appropriately labeled. Each image is labeled according to the view that the image is of coinciding with the photography catalog, and includes the assigned temporary Pasadena City College catalog number and box number. Each corresponding folder is labeled with the catalog number and the box number of each artifact in order to avoid as much potential confusion when reading the images later as a third party that did not put the images together.
When photographing the Wellcome Collection of lithics, the first day was spent primarily working out which method would be best to photograph the objects so that the color would be true in the image and not altered by the artificial light in the classroom. Annie graciously supplied high quality white lights which we used to white balance the area we were photographing and I provided the camera to be used in the process and maintained the images that were taken. While each view was photographed we wrote down a title of the view and further description, which can be found in the catalog, to further avoid confusion as to which side is being described. On the first day we processed approximately one and a half boxes which totaled in this case to six artifacts. After a process was determined for photographing the artifacts, the act of photographing them went more quickly. On the second day we photographed twenty-two objects. On the third day we photographed thirty-one objects. On the final day we had to work in class we finished photographing the collection. The objects to be photographed in the collection totaled eighty-nine objects. The catalog numbers stop at 075, but there are a few items grouped together. These items are labeled with letters following the numbers such as 053A, 053B, 054D, etc.
It was interesting to be able to see what an antiquarian would choose to collect versus what he might have left behind. He would have most likely chosen the best looking items with coloring or shape that appealed to the strongly. It is a behavior that will not be found in archaeologists today as every item is considered with the same level of importance in relevance to the archaeological record. The collection itself can be considered artifactual evidence of the behaviors of the time and what may have been considered important, not only to the individual but to antiquarians as a whole when examined in tandem with other collections created by antiquarians. Annie was a pleasure to work with and was very helpful and eager to learn throughout the process. It made the project completion more manageable to divide up the work.
Images of the artefacts photographically documented by Brianne Johnson can be viewed at The Wellcome Collection.