They're putting the meds back in the "medieval."

The Wellcome Library in London announced this week that they’re releasing more than 100,000 high-resolution images online for Creative Commons use. While their digital resource joins those of other high-profile institutions like the Getty, the Wellcome’s archive is especially exciting because it contains unique collections relating to both art and medicine.

Earliest known herbal on papyrus (Egypt, c. 400) (via wellcomeimages.org)

Part of the Wellcome Collection, which is perhaps the most delightfully and smartly eclectic museum on Earth, the Wellcome Library houses objects and artworks that range across the spectrum of history, art, culture, and, above all, the curious. The thousands of images now online show manuscripts, etchings, paintings, photographs, advertisements, and artifacts. The earliest is a small scrap from what’s thought to be the oldest surviving herbal — a book on medicinal plants — on papyrus, from Ancient Egypt. There are also strange photographs of Salpêtrère Hospital’s hysteria and epilepsy patients, diagrams from Chinese traditional medicine, anatomical illustrations from all eras and all over the world, and even some small works by artists like van Gogh and Goya...