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Welcome to The Sloane Letters Project

sloaneA 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. 356] Sr, I have this morning by carrier remitted ye 2 Tribes of Jamaica Plants you last sent. Mr Smith in his Letter to me made no mention of his determining them. He sent me together with them in back in folio of the description & figures of the more rare Plants of the Physick garden of Amsterdam wch I suppose you have by this time perused. Some plants I there find discovered also & described by you. I hope now you will hasten the edition of your naturall History of Jamaica &c that it may be published before my supplement be finished wch then may neither defraud you of the Honour of the first publication nor hinder but rather advantage the the sale of ye book. So with ye tender of my Wives humble service I take leave & rest Sr Your obliged friend & humble Servant John Ray B.N. 7br.29.97
Read more- Letter 0463


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4,545 Document summaries
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1,527 Medical Cases
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