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:
[fol. 282]
Stockholm 5th Nov. 1724.
Sir,
I take the first opportunity of a Messenger’s going to England, to pay my respects to you by a few lines, and to make a beginning of acquainting you what I meet with in this Country that may deserve your curiosity. First I send you Proposals for ingraving a Map of Grand Tartary, more particular than what was published in the Acta Literaria Suecia Trimestr. III. of last year, on this subject. I have had a long conversation with the Author, who appears to me a very sensible man and good scholar, and has promised to shew me the Draught of his Map, of which I shall give you an account by the next Opportunity. I have communicated yo him some of my Maps relating to that part of the world, which he had not yet seen. I hereby enclose also a Finlandish Grammar, being in hopes soon to send according to your desire a Finlandish Bible, which I am promised. As for the Rest of the Books and things contained in the Memorandum your gave me, I shall form time to time let you know what I meet with. Thirdly I enclose the 3d Trimestre of the Acta literaria Suecia, being persuaded that it is hardly come yet to your hands from another quarter. I am with the greatest Respect and Gratitude
Sir,
your most humble and
most obedient servant
P.H. Zollman.
Read more- Letter 3125
Latest Statistics
| Pages digitised | |
| 4,545 | Document summaries |
| Documents transcribed | |
| People | |
| 1,527 | Medical Cases |
| Places |