§ Baroness GAITSKELLasked Her Majesty's Government:
150WAWhether agreement has now been reached on the loan by the Wellcome Trustees to the Science Museum of the Wellcome Collection of the History of Medicine and, if so, what arrangements are to be made for its exhibition.
§ Lord DONALDSON of KINGS-BRIDGE: The Wellcome Trustees have offered, and the Science Musuem on behalf of the Secretary of State for Education and Science have accepted with gratitude, the long-term loan of the Wellcome Medical Collection. This will form the basis of a national collection of the history of medicine to be shown in a new gallery of the Science Museum which is now under construction. Reserve material from the Wellcome Collection will be accessible for study at the Science Museum's Store at Hayes, Middlesex.
The management of the Collection will be undertaken by the Director of the Science Museum with the assistance of a joint committee representing the Trustees and the Science Museum. The new gallery will be staffed by the Science Museum; the Wellcome Trust have offered up to £150,000 over five years for cataloguing and conservation.
This valuable and extensive collection was assembled between 1890 and 1930 by the late Sir Henry S. Wellcome who was the founder and sole owner of the pharmaceutical company, the Wellcome Foundation Limited, and who died in 1936. The Collection, which is unique, contains some 250,000 objects drawn from many parts of the world. The Wellcome Institute, with its outstanding library, will be further developed by the Wellcome Trust as an international post-graduate centre.