Sloane's Treasures: A cultural and scientific exploration of the research potential of Sir Hans Sloane's collections
Exploratory AwardProject Team:
Principal Investigator:
Dr Kim Sloan, British Museum
Co-Investigators:
Dr Arnold Hunt, British Library
Julie Harvey, Natural History Museum,
Dr J.D Hill, British Museum
Dr Charlie Jarvis, Natural History Museum
Dr Kristian Jensen, British Library
Felicity Roberts, Natural History Museum
Dr Sam Alberti, Royal College of Surgeons
Professor Clare Brant, King’s College London
Dr Peter Collins, Royal Society
Dr James Delbourgo, Reutgers University
Dr Elizabeth Eger, King’s College London
Dr Honor Gay, Natural History Museum
Dr Anne Goldgar, King’s College London
Joy Gregory, Kingston University
Professor Amy Meyers, Yale Centre for British Art
Professor Miles Ogborn, Queen Mary University of London
Dominic Oldman, British Museum
Professor Simon Schaffer, University of Cambridge
Alison Walker, British Library

Image credit: Sloane’s shells, © Natural History Museum.
Award Information:
Sir Hans Sloane (1660- 1753), was a physician, traveler, natural philosopher and man of letters responsible for gathering one of the largest and most significant collections of natural and artificial curiosities assembled during the Enlightenment. This huge collection includes 80,000 natural and artificial objects, a vast herbarium and a library of 50,000 volumes and a range of botanical and zoological specimens.
On his death, Sloane’s collection was acquired for the nation and it became the founding collection of the British Museum and was also later divided across the Natural History Museum and the British Library. These three institutions formed a Consortium in 2011 to address the physical and intellectual fragmentation of Sloane’s collection. this exploratory award has helped develop a proposed consortium Programme called Reconstructing Sloane, which plans to digitize and research the collections and to develop public engagement activities to raise the academic and public profile of Sloane’s important collection.
Project website:
Further information:
A Case Study (PDF) of this AHRC Science in Culture Theme Exploratory Award is available to download here.