PDF The World and Africa and Color and Democracy (The Oxford W. E. B. Du Bois) by W. E. B. Du Bois in History

Description

Richly illustrated throughout; including 8 pages of color plates; An Infinity of Things tells the story of the greatest private collection ever made; and the life of the man behind it. American-born Henry Wellcome made his millions as one of the world's first pharmaceutical entrepreneurs. Drawing on his massive wealth; he planned a great museum filled with treasures from all corners of the globe; charting the history of human health from prehistory to the present day. Demonstrating what can happen when a collector's aspirations are left unconstrained by wealth; Frances Larson explores Wellcome's life through his possessions; revealing the many tensions in his character: between his talents as a businessman and his desire for scholarly recognition; his curiosity and his perfectionism; and his philanthropic aspirations and his drive for personal glory. During the opening decades of the twentieth century he acquired a collection so large that later generations of staff took to describing its contents by the ton. But Wellcome's museum was never finished; and his collection was still stored in vast warehouses when he died; unseen and incomplete.