Monday, July 02, 2007

Henry Wellcome's pockets

Right next to the tube station which I use when I go to Birkbeck College in London, there is the head quarters of the Wellcome Trust, one of the world's largest funders of biomedical research (and also, as I recall, one of the world's most dreaded producers of endless grant application forms to be filled in in 10 copies).
That is, it used to be next to the tube station, but now they have built a brand new building right on top of the station. And they have turned the old building next door into a museum to display the Trust's collection of bits and pieces on three floors:
http://www.wellcomecollection.org/
Haven't been yet, but what struck me during a brief visit to the website was the content of Henry Wellcome's pockets when he died: his glasses, a watch, and about $ 1.50 in cash. Now seeing that his estate is now worth gazillions, that is slightly ironic.

1 comment:

Paul Halpern said...

kSounds interesting. I'll need to check it out the next time I'm in London. Glad to see more science museums opening in London in addition to the one in South Kensington.

Happy to see your refurbished blog on Blogspot, by the way, and good luck with that.