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. 132] Chelsey 21 Aug: 92 Dr I gave special order to my son (before he should set forward for Jamaica) to wayte upon you & to receive yr commands, but being suddenly hurryed away to Portsmouth there to goe aboard the Tiger Frigat, he had not time to doe what he had fully resolved to doe as I am informed: my request therefore to you is in his behalf that you would not only please to pardon him but also to write yr mind with some Instructions & Directions for preserving his Health in that hot Climat & in his Voyage thither, for I believe he will stay at Portsmouth or thereabouts about a week or a fortnight & to send those Directions to me here within a few dayes that I may transmit the same to him before he sets sayle; you will thereby infinitly oblige Sr yr very faithfull humble servant Edw: Chamberlayne Instructions also how to get a penny by some Commodity will be very acceptable
Read more- Letter 0374
Latest Statistics
| Pages digitised | |
| 4,545 | Document summaries |
| Documents transcribed | |
| People | |
| 1,527 | Medical Cases |
| Places |