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. 228
Since you have permitted me to acquaint you with my case, I beg leave to inform you, that before I waited on you, I had made up in the countrey, a frontal that I mett with in Dr. Fullers pharmacopoeia, compounded of mastick, frankincense, white chalk, bean meal, white of egg, oil of roses and vinegar as much as would make it fitt for spreading on a cloth, which was to be putt on a night, and taken off in ye morning, I desire to know if I may use this frontal whilst under your prescription, or if there is anything in those ingredients, inconsistent with your remedies, for tho’ it is a restringent, and by binding up the passages, may hinder the deflux of humours, yett it can only stop the effects, not affect and take away the causes, which only can be done by your internal applic, which I shall be sure to observe, and beg to know, how long I must continue it, and whether I must send for a constant supply of fresh remedies.
I shall readily make my ack., when I come to town, for whatever trouble I give you upon his occasion…
[P.S.] when my eyelids are clotted and gummed, I desire to know, with what I may wash them.
Read more- Letter 2672
Latest Statistics
| Pages digitised | |
| 4,545 | Document summaries |
| Documents transcribed | |
| People | |
| 1,527 | Medical Cases |
| Places |