field notes: cruising the archive (may/June 2025)
My colleague Julia at the Wellcome Collection kindly filmed a ‘how to search the collection’ video for the group so that we could help everyone find their way around the online catalogue (and to do that with care given some of the content in the collection and the group members’ lived experiences). Rather than be prescriptive (and taking inspiration from my recent visit to the National Maritime Museum’s Queer History Club) we gave the group an invitation to independently ‘cruise the archive’ and come back to the next online session with references of things that had captured their attention. We suggested they may like to:
Find something gynae related in the collection that resonates.
Consider what draws you in?
Think about what speaks to you/interests you?
Notice what feels queer but may not outwardly present as queer in the catalogue entry. Can you find any queer narratives?
See what you can find that links with your own experience or contradicts it…
Note anything you feel is missing in the catalogue entry.
We came back together one evening mid-June to share what we found: it was a really fascinating session. Aside from acknowledging challenges that exist with navigating the collection and the tags that are or aren’t added to record entries, the group shared a range of interesting items which sparked various conversations including the historical roots of lingering contemporary shame (for example around masturbation, sex, and pleasure). I’ve added a list below of the items that the group had explored.
Even after just a short amount of time, the group collectively pulled together a really interesting list of materials - some of which the Wellcome team hadn’t seen before. I love working with people and archives in this socially engaged way - there’s always a surprise in terms of what people search for or find, that you either didn’t think about or hadn’t discovered before. It’s struck me subsequently that the process of using the archive collection wasn’t just a good way to increase ownership of the material and increase agency, but it also helped to organically identify and understand the different and communal areas of interest within the group. A tool for connecting - with each other - as well as the collection. We’ll be returning to some of these materials for inspiration later on in the project.
A crocodile controlled by a female devil to give her sexual pleasure by applying its mouth to her vagina. Gouache painting. https://wellcomecollection.org/works/kez9r6b6
Taxus baccata (English yew) https://wellcomecollection.org/works/asshdbnx and https://wellcomecollection.org/search/images?query=ntj799cs
Metastatic neoplasia of omentum tissue, canine https://wellcomecollection.org/works/dm5mdz5u/images?id=xddfc4ty
Memoir of a debulked woman : enduring ovarian cancer / Susan Gubar. https://wellcomecollection.org/works/sggxyaty
Dermoids, or, Tumours containing skin, hair, teeth, &c. / by J. Bland Sutton. https://wellcomecollection.org/works/h5pg2stw
Battling the heteronormativity of sexual health https://wellcomecollection.org/stories/battling-the-heteronormativity-of-sexual-health
The shocking ‘treatment’ to make lesbians straight https://wellcomecollection.org/stories/the-shocking--treatment--to-make-lesbians-straight
Trans medicine : the emergence and practice of treating gender / stef m. shuster. Trans medicine : the emergence and practice of treating gender / stef m. shuster. | Wellcome Collection
The meaning of trauma is wound. The meaning of trauma is wound | Wellcome Collection
The Transvengers. The Transvengers | Wellcome Collection
Trans Masculinity on the record. Trans masculinity on the record | Wellcome Collection
Subtotal hysterectomy : after-histories of sixty cases / by Alban Doran. Doran, Alban H. G. (Alban Henry Griffiths), 1849-1927. https://wellcomecollection.org/works/r822vhqv/items?canvas=25
https://wellcomecollection.org/works/r822vhqv/items?canvas=26
The Viavi gynecological plates : designed to educate mothers and daughters concerning diseases of the uterine organs [AS1] / constructed under the supervision of Hartland Law, Herbert E. Law. Law, Hartland. Date: 1891 https://wellcomecollection.org/works/uy248gw7/items?canvas=17
https://wellcomecollection.org/works/uy248gw7/items?canvas=21
https://wellcomecollection.org/works/uy248gw7/items?canvas=27
Advert for testosterone pills (1958)[AS2] https://wellcomecollection.org/works/nq36t7gx/items
Pharmaceutical advert for androgen deficiency (1946)[AS3] https://wellcomecollection.org/works/gdnbaksw/items
Another advert for androgen/testosterone (1950?)[AS4]
https://wellcomecollection.org/works/ttpvuh7h/items
A study of masturbation and the psychosexual life / by John F.W. Meagher. Date: 1929
https://wellcomecollection.org/works/xu9dcrfb/items?canvas=17
https://wellcomecollection.org/works/xu9dcrfb/items?canvas=61
https://wellcomecollection.org/works/xu9dcrfb/items?canvas=67
Woman and her secret passions : containing an exact description of the female organs of generation, their uses and abuses, together with a detailed account of the causes and the cure of the solitary vice / by Robert T. Wakely. Date: [1846?] https://wellcomecollection.org/works/uzk382zw/items?canvas=20
Lesbians, HIV & AIDS : lesbians & safer sex... are you serious? : HIV & AIDS: the facts / written & researched by Tracey Nathan and Louise Knowles ; produced by Sheffield AIDS Education Project.[AS5] Date: [between 1990 and 1995?] 1990 and
A genealogy of queer theory / William B. Turner.https://wellcomecollection.org/works/fy7pdz65
Vulvar and vaginal enterocele / by T. Gaillard Thomas.
https://wellcomecollection.org/works/xwet3z3k
Female masturbation and the perils of pleasure
https://wellcomecollection.org/stories/female-masturbation-and-the-perils-of-pleasure
Sex and syphilis
https://wellcomecollection.org/stories/sex-and-syphilis
A history of Sex for sale
https://wellcomecollection.org/stories/a-history-of-sex-for-sale
Being Trans in a world of sex work
https://wellcomecollection.org/stories/being-trans-in-the-world-of-sex-work
When wounds replace words
https://wellcomecollection.org/stories/when-wounds-replace-words
The meanings of hurt
https://wellcomecollection.org/stories/the-meanings-of-hurt
Queer Cafes and gay mylk
https://wellcomecollection.org/stories/queer-caf-s-and-gay-mylk
Buch Drag in Builders’ Caff
https://wellcomecollection.org/stories/butch-drag-in-the-builders--caff
The metamorphosis of masturbation https://wellcomecollection.org/stories/the-metamorphosis-of-masturbation
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This participatory research and socially engaged project is being delivered in collaboration with the Wellcome Collection.
Image credits (above):
Image 1 - 3 from The Viavi gynecological plates: designed to educate mothers and daughters concerning diseases of the uterine organs/constructed under the supervision of Hartland Law, Herbert E. Law. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Image 4: A crocodile controlled by a female devil to give her sexual pleasure by applying its mouth to her vagina. Gouache painting. Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). Source: Wellcome Collection.