Collecting the world
Subtitle: Hans Sloane and the origins of the British Museum
By: James Delbourgo
Edition: First Harvard University Press edition.
Publisher: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
Published: 2017
Language: eng
Number of pages: 504
ISBN-13: 9780674737334
Subjects: Physicians; British Museum; Biography; Cabinets of curiosities; History
Other titles: Hans Sloane and the origins of the British Museum
Description: In 1759 the British Museum opened its doors to the general public--the first free national museum in the world. James Delbourgo's biography of Hans Sloane recounts the story behind its creation, told through the life of a figure with an insatiable ambition to pit universal knowledge against superstition and the means to realize his dream. Born in northern Ireland in 1660, Sloane amassed a fortune as a London society physician, becoming a member of the Whig establishment and president of the Royal Society and Royal College of Physicians. His wealth and contacts enabled him to assemble an encyclopedic collection of specimens and objects--the most famous cabinet of curiosities of its time. For Sloane, however, collecting a world of objects meant collecting a world of people, including slaves. His marriage to the heir of sugar plantations in Jamaica gave Sloane access to the experiences of planters and the folkways of their human property. With few curbs on his passion for collecting, he established a network of agents to supply artifacts from China, India, North America, the Caribbean, and beyond. Wampum beads, rare manuscripts, a shoe made from human skin--nothing was off limits to Sloane's imagination. This splendidly illustrated volume offers a new perspective on the entanglements of global scientific discovery with imperialism in the eighteenth century. The first biography of Sloane based on the full range of his writings and collections, Collecting the World tells the rich and complex story of one of the Enlightenment's most controversial luminaries--
Notes: "First published in the United Kingdom as Collecting the world : the life and curiosity of Hans Sloane in 2017 by Penguin Books Ltd., London"--Title page verso.

Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction : The original Sloane Ranger; title: Part One. Empire of curiosities. Transplantation ; Island of curiosities ; Keeping the species from being lost; title: Part Two. Assembling the world. Becoming Hans Sloane ; The world comes to Bloomsbury ; Putting the world in order ; Creating the public's museum.