Sir Henry's Collection

Sir Henry Wellcome, the American-British pharmaceutical entrepreneur, had a passion for collecting medically-related artefacts, aiming to create a Museum of Man. He bought very widely anything related to medicine, including Napoleon's toothbrush, currently on display at the Wellcome Collection. By the time of his death there were 125,000 medical objects in the collection, of over one million in total. Most of the non-medical objects were dispersed after his death.

He was also a keen archaeologist, in particular digging for many years at Jebel Moya, Sudan, hiring 4000 people to excavate.

Parts of his collection have been exhibited in the Science Museum (London) since 1976, and in the Wellcome Collection as the exhibit Medicine Man since 2007. His collection of books, paintings, drawings, photographs and other media can be viewed at the Wellcome Library.

In 2003, the Quay Brothers directed a short animated film in tribute to the collection, The Phantom Museum.