Wellcome Images, an online image repository “depicting 2,000 years of mankind and medicine”, recently launched their enormous collection online under a Creative Commons Attribution, Non-commercial Licence 2.0. From their press release:

Launched on 15 June 2007, ‘Wellcome Images’ is the world’s leading source of images on the history of medicine, modern biomedical science and clinical medicine. All content has been made available under a Creative Commons License, which allows users to copy, distribute and display the image, provided the source is fully attributed and it is used for non-commercial purposes.

Wellcome Images is constantly updated with new clinical, and biomedical and historical images from the Wellcome Library, Europe’s leading resource for the study of history of medicine which recently re-launched as part of the new and forthcoming Wellcome Collection.

This is absolutely amazing news. Projects like Wellcome Images are phenomenal resources for those in the academic world, allowing students and teachers alike open access to a wealth of information. By utilizing CC-licensing, Wellcome Images is more able to fully realize the true spirit of academia – an unblocked and open pursuit of knowledge and understanding.