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. 220
I have the honour to acquaint that Mr Roberts has had some [] towards his fitts again. On the 18th instant in the morning the day yt ye full moon, he was taken with a numbness and pain in his head, in his bed. He eat little breakfast and less dinner and has failed in his stomach ever since; the same afternoon he had the usual symptoms that precede his fitt, swelling of the nose, a wildish look in his eyes, a numbness in his leg, upon which which they gave him ye vomitt which discharged very much thick with phlegm as usuall; which chequed (?) the fitt and he has had no effects since; but he is listless, and don’t care for victualls or motion. I thought him a little feverish; I vomited [] today and gave coral[] and ordered him to use them till I [] with yr further directions. He has followed yr last orders both as to diet and medicine to this time, with swift exactness and I can’t find any mismanagement to charge with this seeming relapse and am apprehensive of the next [] moon. Mr Lemott will be in touch sometime next week, but I thought it not proper to stay so long for your commands wherefore by his order, I give you this trouble and hope to have the satisfaction of ye directions…
Read more- Letter 2668
Latest Statistics
| Pages digitised | |
| 4,545 | Document summaries |
| Documents transcribed | |
| People | |
| 1,527 | Medical Cases |
| Places |