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. 137] Excester in Devonsh: Nov. 25. 1730 Hon’d S’r I hope ye communicative Genius will excuse the freedom of beging ye Opinion ab’t a shield; Whether they are all more or less Curv’d towards the person that bears it as I have often observed in Coins & other figures, or Whether some may have the concave hold towards ye Enemy; as this Clypous or Parma (w’ch I met with at Smith’s shop in a sea-port-town near this place) seems to indicate as much (perhaps it may be Spanish, but cannot guess at it’s Age) it is ab’t 12 Inch: diam: whose convex is cover’d with Leather, & where is the remains of a Manubrium for the Sctuifer to take hold of the concave is 2 Inches, and ye Unbo wch is 4 Inch: diam: & hollow, on it’s top is a piece of solid Brass 1/2 Inch thick, wch exceeds ye Cavity by 2 Inches more, & probably a point or Dart on ye top of it, wch seems broken off that may be some Inches longer; there are 60 plates of Iron from the Umbo to ye Circumference, & 9 Circular ones, wch are fastned together by 60 Nails in each Circle where the plates intersect, whose heads are all as round as Pease, of the smaller size, but in ye other Circle ye Nails touch each other, & are in Number 150 from whence I conclude that from ye Nails, Umbo, &c. that ye concave part was held outward, wch makes this Armour Offensive as well as Defensive, however shall be determined by ye greater Judgem’t if you please to fav’r me with a Line, shall take it as an hon’r done to ye very humble ser’t Caleb Lowdham
Read more- Letter 3838
Latest Statistics
| Pages digitised | |
| 4,545 | Document summaries |
| Documents transcribed | |
| People | |
| 1,527 | Medical Cases |
| Places |