The Sloane Letters

The thirty-eight volumes of Sloane’s correspondence, which 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, are held at the British Library, London.

Despite its richness, the collection has only been indexed by authors and catalogued by vague categories, which makes it difficult for researchers to find relevant information easily. This project aims to overcome these challenges by cataloguing and eventually transcribing the letters.

Dr Lisa Smith is the primary investigator on this project. Since 1997, she has worked extensively on the Sloane medical correspondence, which proved fruitful for both her Ph.D. thesis and subsequent projects. Her main areas of research interest are gender, health, and the household in England and France (ca. 1670-1789).