Collecting the World

Hans Sloane was the greatest collector of his time, and one of the greatest of all time. His name is familiar today through the London streets and squares named after him, but the man himself, and his achievements, are almost forgotten.

Born in the north of Ireland, Sloane made his fortune as a physician to London''s wealthiest residents. In 1687 he travelled to Jamaica, then at the heart of Britain''s commercial empire, to survey its natural history, and later organised a network of correspondents who sent him curiosities from across the world. He became one of the eighteenth century''s preeminent natural historians and assembled an astonishing collection of specimens, artefacts and oddities - the most famous curiosity cabinet of the age. Shortly after his death, Sloane''s vast collection was then acquired - as he had hoped - by the nation. It became the nucleus of the world''s first national public museum, the British Museum.

This is the first biography of Sloane in