Wellcome Film

The Wellcome Film collection, 450+ titles dating from 1912 onwards, covering all aspects of medicine, healthcare provision and practice in the UK from the Moving Image and Sound Collection in the Wellcome Library.

Example item:

DDT versus malaria: a successful experiment in malaria control by the Kenya Medical Department

This film was created as a record of the 1946 campaign to check an epidemic of malaria in the Kipsigis tribal reserve in the Kisumu district of north-west Kenya by spraying village huts with DDT. During its inception, it was decided that the film could also be used for propaganda purposes and modern audiences will find its tone jarringly patronising in places. Also, there is evidence that certain narrative elements of this film are fictional (the sequence with the headman is re-enacted); please refer to chapter 7 ‘DDT versus malaria, Kenya-commentary on a film’, Health in tropical Africa during the colonial period (Oxford: Clarendon Press,1980) available in the Wellcome Library. The film features the late Professor Cyril Garnham (1901-1994).

Still from the film "DDT versus malaria: a successful experiment in malaria control by the Kenya Medical Department"