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. 141]
Honrd Sr
The last weeke I was favoured with yr letter & by the returne of the Carier I received gesn: Epist: for wch & all other yr former civilitys I am very much obliged to yr Gesner & Cisalpinus are reputed by several to have been the first authors who reduced Botany to genus & species Cisalpinus I have read over & find nothing farther in […] of that kind then some discours hints as if he […] such a methode necessary & it is probable gesner in […] Epistles (which I have not as yet read over) many have […] the same but I do not find that either of them ever attempted it though they were the most learned men of their time medicins in the country were never worse then of present both simple & compound though at Bradford we are wel served. I have several times been obliged to send for [medicines] twenty miles & when they came none of the best. Certainly you can not undertake a weeke of greater thrice then clearing the […] medcins for which yu wil have the thanks of the […] through the whole nations that yu may enjoy a long health to do good to mankind is the hearty wish of.
your most obliged servant
Ric: Richardson
North Bierley
Mar: 4th 1723/24
Read more- Letter 3011
Latest Statistics
| Pages digitised | |
| 4,545 | Document summaries |
| Documents transcribed | |
| People | |
| 1,527 | Medical Cases |
| Places |