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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

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[fol. 111] Sr Upminster Nov: 21 1712 Not doubting but a Council of the R.S will be called before our Election-day, & by reason of the bad Weather & Ways, foreseeing I may not be well able to be there, I hope you will excuse my troubling you with what I would propose in behalf of the Repository, viz Considering that few of us are well acquaint- ed with the Repository, especially with such things as are out of sight in Boxes & Draw- ers, & under Locks & Keys: & considering al- so that the late Removeall of them, may in all probability have impaired some, displaced others, & lost other: & especially considering yt no man is able to give any account of many of them but Mr Hunt, who grows much in years, That therefore a Committee of the Society be appointed Strictly to respect the Repository: That they should be ordered to annex the Tithes and Donors to the Rarities; place them in so good an order; & make an Alphabetical Catalogue of them, yt every curious Inquirer may readily & ea- sibly search & have recourse to them. But if this would be too tedious, yt at least the Committee should go on where Dr Grew left off, & add what hath been brought in since Besides the benefit this would make the Repository of to curious persons, it would moreover make some of our selves acquainted therewith; which would be of absolute necessity in case of Mr Hunts death; the loss of whom (without such a provision as this I have proposed) would be of fatal consequence to the Repository, he being, I imagine, the only man thoroughly acquainted therewth. This Project I thought it my duty to propound in Coun- cil, but with all submission to their & your better judgt Since I was last in town I have been concerned I had not the happiness to see our Molineaux. If he is in town I desire the favour of you to greet him with my hum- ble service, & to tell him I should be glad to see him here if not, I hope he will not leave the Town before our Election-day, at which time I hope to see him. But if not so, yt I will comepose to town to wait on him, if he will favour me with a Lr please when to wait on him. Wth great repect yours Wm Derham
Read more- Letter 1877


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