Welcome to The Sloane Letters Project
A pilot of this project, Sir Hans Sloane’s Correspondence Online, was first launched at the University of Saskatchewan in 2010 to coincide with the 350th anniversary of Sir Hans Sloane’s birth. The project was renamed The Sloane Letters Project when it moved to this site in 2016.
The correspondence of Sir Hans Sloane (1660-1753) consists of thirty-eight volumes held at the British Library, London: MSS 4036-4069, 4075-4078. The letters are a rich source of information about topics such as scientific discourse, collections of antiquities, curiosities and books, patients’ illnesses, medical treatments and family history. Most of the letters were addressed to Sloane, but a few volumes were addressed to others (MSS 4063-4067) or written by Sloane (MSS 4068-4069).
So far, we have entered descriptions and metadata for Sloane MSS 4036-4053 and 4075, as well as several letters from each of the following: Sloane MSS 4054-4055, 4066, 4068-4069 and 4076. Several of these entries also include transcriptions. Further entries and transcriptions are being made available gradually.
Please, explore the website and database. You can search through the letters, learn about Sir Hans Sloane or the letters written to him, and peruse blog posts about interesting letters!
Random Letter
Author:Recipient:
Petersfield Feb. 22. 1734
Hon.d Sir,
I am infinitely obliged to you for your favourable opinion of my Treatise on Fevers, and am perfectly satisfied with your approbation without putting it into other Hands. your most excellent History of Jamaica I have by me & have read more than once with a vast deal of profit & pleasure, I doubt not but many expert Sugeons in London do open the Jugular in an Instant & without trying; but I am sure it is oftentimes quite otherwise in the Country, for I have many Times seen the Sick almost strangled before the operation halth been performed: to such people, therefore the Caution I have given may still be of service. I do not deny but bleeding in the neck or applying Leeches to the Temples may relieve the Head; but what I contend for is that it is not so advantageous in the beginning of Fevers as afterwords, & that the Benefit received is owing to Derivation & not Revination. I am extremely sorry, Sir, to hear you have been ill, & most sincerely wish you Health, which I am sure will be a Happiness to Mankind in general, & to all Lovers of Natural Knowledge in particular. I am, Hon.d Sir, yr most obliged and most humble servant
Browne Langrish
P.S. when you have done with mu MSS be pleased to send it to Mr. Betesworth a Bookseller at the Red. Lyon in Peter Noster Row
Read more- Letter 4409
Latest Statistics
| Pages digitised | |
| 4,545 | Document summaries |
| Documents transcribed | |
| People | |
| 1,527 | Medical Cases |
| Places |