Oxford LibGuides: Disability History Resources: Images and Objects

Key resources

Ashmolean Collection Online
British Deaf History Society - Museum
A small but growing national collection of numerous artefacts, artwork and texts created by and about deaf people.
British Museum Collections
The British Museum's online collections allow access to almost four and a half million objects in more than two million records. High definition images can be enlarged and examined in detail. There is also an in-depth blog post exploring items in the collection related to disability.
Disability History Museum
The Disability History Museum hosts a Library of virtual artefacts, Education curricula, and Museum exhibits designed to foster research and study about the historical experiences of people with disabilities and their communities.
Imperial War Museum
The Imperial War Museum reading room includes a wide variety of sources on the experience of warfare including injury and medical treatment and resulting disabilities. Collections cover the First World War to the Modern Day.
Museum of Disability
A museum that is now closed but still has an online connection and various sources (objects, exhibits, reading lists) on disability history. Has a US-focus.
Museum of Healthcare Canada
Museum about healthcare in Canada, with online access to the artefact collections, and a researchers' blog.
National Army Museum
The National Army Museum collection includes object and images related to war induced disabilities.
National Paralympic Heritage Trust
Has a rich collection of objects relating to the Paralympics, including some items which have been 3D modelled for viewing online.
The Science Museum Group Collections
Explore over 380,000 objects and archives from the Science Museum, Science and Industry Museum, National Science and Media Museum, National Railway Museum and Locomotion. There is a particularly strong collection on orthopaedics.
The Wellcome Collection
Free, downloadable images taken from The Wellcome Collection's library and museum collections, including paintings, illustrations, photos and more.
Rijksmuseum Boerhaave
A museum collection that showcases five centuries of research and innovation in medical science in the Netherlands.
National Institute of Health Online Collections Database
The Office of NIH History and Stetten Museum was established to increase historical understanding of the National Institutes of Health and biomedical science among NIH staff, scholars, and the general public. The Office serves as a source of information for NIH history by maintaining a variety of collections.
The Museum of the American Printing House for the Blind
This museum's collections cover the history of literacy and learning for people who are blind or visually impaired and the role of the American Printing House for the Blind.

ARTstor
The ARTstor Digital Library Charter Collection is a repository of hundreds of thousands of digital images and related data and the tools to actively use those images.
Bridgeman Education
An expanding resource currently comprising over 300,000 images representing objects from museums, galleries and private collections, as well as buildings and monuments.
Leonard Cheshire Photography Archive
Photographs from an archive to preserve the memory of volunteers, staff, and residents of Leonard Cheshire, as well the humanitarian work of its founder.
Pitt's Theology Library Digital Image Archive
More than 65,000 images of biblical illustrations, portraits of religious leaders, printers' devices, engravings of church buildings, and other theological topics. Includes images of religious interaction with disability and miraculous cures for the blind, deaf, and mute
Disabled People's Archive - Photography
A selection of photographs, held by the Disabled People's Archive covering the 1980s to the 2010s.
London Picture Archive
Over 250,000 images of London from the collections at London Metropolitan Archives and Guildhall Art Gallery. There is also a curated collection on 'Unusual Bodies'.
Perkins School for the Blind - Flickr Collections
The Perkins Archives Flickr site provides access to archival materials in our collections, which include digitized photographs and documents, as well as photographed artifacts.
Images from the History of Medicine
Provides online access to images from the historical collections of the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Including fine art, photographs, engravings, and posters that illustrate the social and historical aspects of medicine dating from the 15th to 21st century.
National Disability Arts Collection and Archive
A collection of artworks, photographs, films, articles and exhibitions that tell the story of disability arts and the battle for disability rights in the UK.

Alf Morris and the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act - LSE Library
This exhibition tells the story of the passing of the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act (CSDPA) largely through extracts from the papers of Alf Morris MP, who plotted its journey through Parliamentary processes and onto the statute book.
EveryBody: An Artifact History of Disability in America - The Smithsonian
An introduction to the history of disability in America, covering politics, relationships, work, technology, health and more.
A history of care or control? 100 years of learning disability nursing - Royal College of Nursing
An exhibition tracing the fascinating origins and journey of learning disability nursing over the last 150 years.
Patient No More: People with Disabilities Securing Civil Rights - Longmore Institute
An exhibition on the “Section 504 Sit-In,” the protest that profoundly changed the lives of people with and without disabilities, and paved the way for the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990.
Outcasts: Prejudice and Persecution in the Medieval World - J. Paul Getty Museum
Exhibition of illuminated manuscripts at the Getty Museum, Los Angeles (2018). Topics covered include "Ableism and Classism" and "Stigma of Disease". The website gives access to the gallery texts and a list of exhibits.
Disability in Print: USTC exhibition
The Universal Short Title Catalogue in partnership with the School of History at St Andrews University, launched an exciting exhibition coupled with a series of blog posts about disability in print. Now only available in part via the Wayback Machine

Copyright

If you're going to be using images in your research it's important to understand the copyright restrictions involved. Below are some guides to using and attributing copyrighted images within your own work.

Copyright notice: digital images, photographs and the internet
This is a copyright notice published by the Intellectual Property Office to help explain specific areas of copyright in the UK. It is aimed at small businesses and individuals who may wish to use digital or photographic images on the web.
About Creative Commons Licenses
Creative Commons licenses provide a standardized way to grant permission to use a creative work under copyright law. This website explains the different types of creative commons licenses and what they allow.
Best practices for attribution
One condition of all CC licenses is attribution. This page explains best practices for providing attribution on copyrighted works.

Disability History Resources: Images and Objects

Introduction

Key resources

Copyright