Sir Hans Sloane's 350th anniversary
The great collector
Sir Hans Sloane was a physician in 18th-century London with a passion for natural history. In his life, he amassed one of the greatest ever private collections of plants and animals, that became the foundation of the British Museum's collections and later the Natural History Museum.
16 April this year marks the 350th anniversary of his birth.
Sloane in Jamaica
In 1687, Sloane was invited to go to Jamaica as personal doctor to the island's English governor. During the 15 months he spent there, he collected many natural history specimens that are now in the Museum's collections.
Find out more about Sloane's time in JamaicaSlavery and the Natural World
Sloane was particularly interested in the herbal remedies used by local people in Jamaica, including former slaves. Traditional knowledge about local plants had been passed down through the generations to help cure all kinds of ailments, from insect bites to burns.
Voyages of discovery
A number of early explorers went on collecting expeditions all over the world in the 17th and 18th centuries. Find out more about their journeys, including Hans Sloane's voyage to Jamaica and his work there.
Other Sloane 350 events
Our partner institutions are also celebrating Sir Hans Sloane's 350th anniversary. Here are some of their events.
Celebration events
To celebrate Sir Hans Sloane's contribution to natural history, the Museum will be holding a number of special events.
You can go behind the scenes on a visit to Sloane's Herbarium, where many of the plants he collected are kept. Or why not find out about the history of chocolate, or test your knowledge of great natural historians in our Science Brains quiz?
The Sloane herbarium
Sloane's specimens are the oldest in the Museum's Botany Department. He collected some of them himself but he also bought collections from his contemporaries. Some of them were the first collections to reach Europe from various regions, including parts of Japan and China.
Search the database to find full details of Sloane's collections, along with information about his contemporaries and about how the collections are preserved.
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Who were the first collectors?
The Museum owes its beginnings to Sir Hans Sloane, an 18th century collector. He acquired over 80,000 items, forming the single largest collection of any individual in Europe.
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Botany collections
Learn more about how curators are collating and caring for our collections from around the world.
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Virtual library
Read parts of ground-breaking works like On the Origin of Species or browse images of pressed flowers collected by 16th century explorers, all from the comfort of your own computer.
