In memory of Sir Hans Sloane, founder of the British Museum
One of the most famous museums in the world celebrates its 250th anniversary this year
MúzeumCafé 10.
Hans Sloane decided, that after his death the collection should be bequeathed to the nation. He was born in the northern Irish village of Killyleagh in the year 1660. Contemporary sources as well as current biographical encyclopaedias about famous personalities of the British Isles agree that he was a keen naturalist from early childhood, enthusiastically collecting and observing all sorts of plants and animals. As a young man he studied medicine at London University. Following his return to London in 1684, scholarly circles soon took note of the young physician and his imposing achievements, and on the recommendation of John Ray he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society at the age of twenty-five. He could have easily become a noted medical doctor and naturalist, since in 1687 he was also made a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians. However, due to his enthusiasm to discover and collect that year was also a turning point in Sloane’s life. Instead of the convenience of settling down and enjoying an esteemed life among the elite, he accepted the opportunity to travel to Jamaica at the service of its new governor, the Duke of Albemarle. Following the duke’s unexpected death, Sloane returned to London in 1689. He remained the family doctor to the widowed duchess, while simultaneously beginning the classification of his copious notes. In addition to undertaking scientific research, he continued his medical career from the beginning of the 1700s. Due to his marriage to the widow of a Jamaican plantation owner, he acquired wealth and established his own medical practice. His patients came from the highest aristocratic circles, but he also treated poor people without asking for payment at his home in Bloomsbury Place. Later he was appointed court physician, personally attending to Queen Anne and Kings George I and II. Due to his high position he was created a baron in 1716. In view of his interests, his collection primarily related to the natural sciences and was intended mainly for specialists in that field. It can be regarded as symbolic that the first volume of Diderot’s and D’Alembert’s large encyclopaedia came out in 1751, two years before Sloane’s death. His collection, which was varied in its nature, included great rarities and recalled Wunderkammers of the Renaissance. In the course of his purchases, in addition to natural items Sloane also acquired drawings, etchings, books and objects of art, although they were not primarily a source of aesthetic pleasure for him but characteristic relics of the past and of cultures then relatively unknown. His successful medical career enabled him to obtain complete collections of other noted collectors. In Montpellier he made friends with William Charlton (Courten) who bequeathed to Sloane his valuable compilation of antiquities, coins, medals, drawings and prints, including some works by the German artist Albrecht Dürer. He purchased valuable Oriental items from Engelbert Kaempfer, a German medical doctor, which included Japanese prints, lacquer pieces, Chinese paintings and Turkish miniature manuscripts. A Persian astrolabe of artistic manufacture was the most prominent item among them. Sloane could count the most prominent scholars of the Middle Ages as his friends, which possibly explains his attraction to Anglo-Saxon historic relics. Arms, rings, cameos and other objects found in graves recalled the Middle Ages, the death mask of Oliver Cromwell evoked the 16th century. In the end the rich compilation grew so vast that Sir Hans Sloane bought a neighbouring house to accommodate all the items. An interesting coincidence is that his first residence in London was in the same street as the later museum he founded. In 1742 Sloane, who had retired from daily medical practice, moved with his whole collection to Chelsea and spent all his time on receiving foreign guests and studying his collection, thus in a short while his house became one of London’s points of attraction. Sloane the scientist was proud of his collection containing more than 71,000 items and he wanted to make it available to the nation, keeping it together after his death, therefore in his will he offered his natural scientific collection, his library comprising 50,000 volumes as well as 3,560 manuscripts to the city of London for 20,000 pounds. Lacking sufficient finances, Parliament had to intervene to keep the Sloane collection in England. The necessary sum raised by a lottery was used to purchase not only the invaluable Sloane collection but also Robert Harley’s library and Montagu House a stately building in London. It was there that the Sloane collection united with the Royal Library was accommodated and on 15 January 1759 the British Museum opened for the public.