Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production
Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio. Hello and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly
Speaker 1: Frye and I'm Tracy V. Wilson. I was in London
Speaker 1: a few weeks ago and I finally went to the
Speaker 1: British Museum, Yeah, which I loved. There's a cool thing
Speaker 1: there that I didn't realize in its layout, which is
Speaker 1: that the early areas of the museum that you passed
Speaker 1: through are really fascinating because they're set up almost as
Speaker 1: though you're walking through a grand personal study where someone's
Speaker 1: personal collection is housed. And that's because you kind of
Speaker 1: are what sets it off. And what confused me initially
Speaker 1: is that there aren't a lot of like placards and
Speaker 1: shelf talkers telling you what you're looking at. You can
Speaker 1: find that information if you look for it. And then
Speaker 1: you come across the bar of Sir Hans Sloan, and
Speaker 1: there's lots of signage about him and his legacy, and
Speaker 1: that's because most of the things you're looking at are
Speaker 1: things he collected in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, or
Speaker 1: replicas of those things. Like it's kind of purposely made
Speaker 1: to look like here is his personal collection, and then
Speaker 1: there's more. Once you get in through that into the
Speaker 1: museum proper, you get to see all the cool stuff
Speaker 1: like the Rosetta Stone and whatnot. But we don't get
Speaker 1: a whole lot of Hans Sloan education in the US.
Speaker 1: I didn't that I can recall. I don't think i'd
Speaker 1: ever heard his name before. Honestly, I knew about him,
Speaker 1: but only because of reading that I have done as
Speaker 1: an adult, like connected to this podcast. So I decided
Speaker 1: he would be an interesting topic. His legacy, as acknowledged
Speaker 1: by the British Museum is mixed. He is the reason
Speaker 1: there's a British Museum, but there are a lot of
Speaker 1: problematic aspects to the way that he gathered his collection
Speaker 1: and really like the resources that enabled him to do so.
Speaker 1: So we're going to talk about him today. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think there are also some problematic aspects to the British
Speaker 1: Museum more broadly, but that's like way beyond the scope
Speaker 1: of today. Oh, for sure, We've talked about it multiple times, right,
Speaker 1: Like our whole episodes on the Elgin Marbles discuss all
Speaker 1: of those problems at length. Yeah, there are multiple issues, Yeah,
Speaker 1: but they're pretty forthright about his problems, I will say so.
Speaker 1: Hans Sloan was born on April sixteenth, sixteen sixty in Killiele, Ulster, County,
Speaker 1: Down Ireland that sits on the east coast of what's
Speaker 1: now Northern Ireland, southeast of Belfast. He happened to be
Speaker 1: born the same year the Royal Society was founded, and
Speaker 1: that would become an important part of his life. The
Speaker 1: Sloane family was not wealthy, but they were in a
Speaker 1: unique position. Hans's parents, Alexander Sloan and Sarah Hicks Sloane,
Speaker 1: had each moved to Killyle from Scotland as servants of
Speaker 1: the wealthy Protestants who had moved there as part of
Speaker 1: the plantation of Ulster. We also talked about the plantation
Speaker 1: of Ulster recently. Alexander and Sarah had met in Ulster
Speaker 1: and gotten married, and Hans was their seventh and last child,
Speaker 1: but one of only three who survived childhood. His surviving
Speaker 1: older brothers, James and William, became a lawyer and a merchant.
Speaker 1: Because this Loans were part of a colony that was
Speaker 1: established on seized land, there was a degree of privilege,
Speaker 1: even for those who were working in service to the
Speaker 1: aristocracy that had been granted that land. Biographer James del
Speaker 1: Borgo notes in his book Collecting the World quote he
Speaker 1: likely enjoyed highly cordial, if not familial, relations with the
Speaker 1: aristocratic Hamiltons, whose company appears to have lent him an
Speaker 1: easy sociability around persons of different rank, which was later
Speaker 1: to be one of the hallmarks of his own extensive
Speaker 1: social circles. From an early age, plants fascinated Hans, and
Speaker 1: he also loved exploring and learning about nature in general.
Speaker 1: He is said to have wandered all over that land
Speaker 1: that di Hamilton's had been granted. He wrote as an
Speaker 1: adult that he was quote very much pleased with the
Speaker 1: study of plants and other parts of nature, and that
Speaker 1: he had observed nature out in the fields in his childhood,
Speaker 1: as well as when visiting other people who had collected
Speaker 1: various natural items. He also described, for example, watching pete
Speaker 1: be dug up to be used as fuel and being
Speaker 1: very intrigued by all of the root systems that were
Speaker 1: revealed when that pete was pulled up from the earth,
Speaker 1: and he also noticed that animal skeletons and sometimes even
Speaker 1: pieces of gold were entangled in the roots. He to
Speaker 1: Tracy's Dismay was a fan of the coin Horde. He
Speaker 1: started his own little collections as a kis with plants
Speaker 1: and things like seagull eggs that he found around home.
Speaker 1: As a teenager, Sloane went through some sort of horrible
Speaker 1: illness described as a violent hemorrhage. This illness stopped his
Speaker 1: life in its tracks for several years, from the ages
Speaker 1: of sixteen until nineteen. He rarely left his room, and
Speaker 1: he had very frequent bouts of coughing, in which he
Speaker 1: would spit up blood. Sloane would occasionally have this problem
Speaker 1: crop up throughout his life. He lived longer than average,
Speaker 1: though This early experience made him take his health really
Speaker 1: seriously and he was extremely cautious regarding his diet. He
Speaker 1: drank very little. This may have also informed his decision
Speaker 1: to study medicine. Yeah, when we say he drank very little,
Speaker 1: we mean alcohol. He was big on hydration, as you'll
Speaker 1: hear in a little while. When it came time for
Speaker 1: higher education, Sloane studied medicine, first in London and then
Speaker 1: in France. And of course this is a time when
Speaker 1: the path to a medical degree was quite different than
Speaker 1: it would be today. While in London, he kind of
Speaker 1: went the root of an apothecary and he learned how
Speaker 1: to prepare plants for medicinal purposes from a chemist who
Speaker 1: had moved to the city from Germany named Nikolaus Staphorst.
Speaker 1: This was in addition to a number of other things
Speaker 1: that Sloane did as a little bit of a sort
Speaker 1: of self directed study. He often visited the physic Garden
Speaker 1: in Chelsea to study plants and to learn to tell
Speaker 1: them apart on site, and he also made an effort
Speaker 1: to just connect with like minded people who could help
Speaker 1: him along in his learning and teach him what they knew. Next,
Speaker 1: Sloane went to France, where he attended the University of
Speaker 1: Orange and graduated with his medical degree from there in
Speaker 1: sixteen eighty three. He had read the work of a
Speaker 1: number of notable French scientists and physicians before he went there,
Speaker 1: and he was able to reach out to some of
Speaker 1: those authors to further extend his network of colleagues and mentors.
Speaker 1: One of the men he befriended was botanist Joseph Pitton
Speaker 1: div Turnfort, who is now recognized for laying the foundation
Speaker 1: of plant classification. That idea of classification of plants and
Speaker 1: animals that had not already been identified was something that
Speaker 1: tourn four was really driven by, and it no doubt
Speaker 1: influenced Sloane in his own collecting of specimens when he
Speaker 1: had the opportunity to travel a few years later. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there was a whole ideology of like, we could lose
Speaker 1: any of this at any time, we need to collect
Speaker 1: and catalog all of it so we know what we
Speaker 1: have on earth. And that was a lot of what
Speaker 1: Sloane bought into. So after getting his medical degree, Sloane
Speaker 1: spent another two years in France before he moved back
Speaker 1: to London, and though he was still fairly young, he
Speaker 1: was just twenty five at the time. He was elected
Speaker 1: to the Royal Society as a fellow in sixteen eighty five,
Speaker 1: and his next step was to actually practice medicine, which
Speaker 1: he did under the mentorship of Thomas Sydenham. In sixteen
Speaker 1: eighty nine, opened up his own medical practice out of
Speaker 1: his home in London. Uh that was not uncommon for
Speaker 1: doctors at the time. They often worked out of their houses.
Speaker 1: When Hans was twenty seven, two important things happened. First,
Speaker 1: he became a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians.
Speaker 1: That's something that comes up pretty frequently on the show,
Speaker 1: but we don't usually note what a true distinction that was.
Speaker 1: At the time, there were only a couple dozen men
Speaker 1: who had been given that distinction, So this was a
Speaker 1: very small select group. Yeah, I think I read a
Speaker 1: stat and don't quote me that by the mid eighteen
Speaker 1: hundreds it was still like less than fifty people. It
Speaker 1: was not something that everybody just got by virtue of practicing. Second,
Speaker 1: he was offered the chance to go to Jamaica as
Speaker 1: a personal doctor to the island's new British governor, Christopher Munk,
Speaker 1: second Duke of Albemarle. Sloan and Monk had actually met
Speaker 1: before Sloan had gotten his medical credentials in so they
Speaker 1: did have a degree of familiarity with one another. This
Speaker 1: was really a dangerous job offer. The travel to get
Speaker 1: there alone was likely to encounter any number of problems,
Speaker 1: and this was smack dab in the middle of what's
Speaker 1: known as the Golden Age of piracy, with the Caribbean
Speaker 1: known as an especially active place in that regard. Several
Speaker 1: of Hans Sloan's friends tried to persuade him to turn
Speaker 1: down the appointment, but he managed to get a lot
Speaker 1: of money and a lot of authority as part of
Speaker 1: the deal, and so he took it. He was to
Speaker 1: be paid six hundred pounds a year, plus another three
Speaker 1: hundred pounds up front as sort of a signing bonus,
Speaker 1: and he was not only in charge of Monk's healthcare,
Speaker 1: but of the entire fleet, and then when he got there,
Speaker 1: of basically everyone and everything that lived on the grounds.
Speaker 1: So that meant that he also was getting a management
Speaker 1: position as he helmed the team of physicians and apothecaries
Speaker 1: that would be there as well as on the journey.
Speaker 1: The trip with Monk was destined to be the beginning
Speaker 1: of an impressive lifelong collection for Sloan, but that wasn't
Speaker 1: something that was born solely of his own desires. When
Speaker 1: he left London to cross the Atlantic, he carried with
Speaker 1: him requests to collect samples from a number of his
Speaker 1: colleagues in the medical field, some of them had been
Speaker 1: the ones to urge him not to go. During this
Speaker 1: time at sea, he made notes regarding his observations of
Speaker 1: the things he could see in the ocean, referencing dolphins, jellyfish, birds,
Speaker 1: and phosphorescence, among other things. Yeah, I love that His
Speaker 1: friends were like, don't go, don't go, don't go. Well,
Speaker 1: if you're going anyway, here's my wish list as why
Speaker 1: as you're there. Coming up, we're going to talk about
Speaker 1: Sloan's time in Jamaica, but first we will pause for
Speaker 1: a sponsor break. After the three month long voyage it
Speaker 1: took to get to Jamaica, Sloan was away from London
Speaker 1: for another fifteen months. He didn't only go to Jamaica.
Speaker 1: He also visited Barbados, Saint Kitts, and Nevis, and he
Speaker 1: made additional stops throughout the Caribbean. And he collected specimens
Speaker 1: on all of his travels, hundreds of them. Some accounts
Speaker 1: put the number around eight hundred, but some note that
Speaker 1: as exclusively the number of plant samples he acquired, and
Speaker 1: he did also collect various fauna. This was by no
Speaker 1: means the entirety of the collection he would eventually have,
Speaker 1: and we will talk more about that in just a bit.
Speaker 1: Floane's impression of life in Jamaica was a little bit odd.
Speaker 1: He thought, for example, that the meat of the turtles
Speaker 1: there was causing a blood infection in the people who
Speaker 1: ate it. He noted that people sweated heavily. Medicine in
Speaker 1: the seventeenth century was still grappling with a lot of
Speaker 1: the concepts that are pretty well understood today. By the
Speaker 1: time Sloane was in Jamaica, For example, scientists had understood
Speaker 1: that blood flowed through the body thanks to the pumping
Speaker 1: of the heart for about fifty years. They understood that
Speaker 1: humans and most animals require oxygen to breathe. That was
Speaker 1: a concept less than thirty years old, and there were
Speaker 1: still plenty of physicians who believed in diagnosing patients based
Speaker 1: on Galen's system of the four humors. Clone was really
Speaker 1: ahead of the game and a lot of ways when
Speaker 1: it came to medical ideology. Though one of the things
Speaker 1: he advocated for was that everyone drink more water and
Speaker 1: less alcohol. Doesn't seem as though that was a well
Speaker 1: accepted piece of advice. The popular belief at the time
Speaker 1: was that you needed to drink alcohol to digest food
Speaker 1: better in hot climates. That one really kind of flummockses
Speaker 1: to me, because I love a cocktail, but drinking alcohol
Speaker 1: when it's really hot out is kind of nightmarish to me,
Speaker 1: So I'm like, why, why it does seem likely that
Speaker 1: Sloane would have stayed in the Caribbean for much longer
Speaker 1: had it not been for the fact that his employer died.
Speaker 1: According to the History of Parliament that is online, Monk
Speaker 1: liked Jamaica, but it didn't really like him back quote.
Speaker 1: His principal achievement was the recovery of a wrecked Spanish
Speaker 1: treasure ship, the first successful salvage operation of modern times,
Speaker 1: which brought him and estimated forty eight thousand pounds for
Speaker 1: an investment of eight hundred pounds. But he did not
Speaker 1: enjoy his wealth for long. Drink and the climate finished
Speaker 1: him off on six October sixteen eighty eight. Monk was
Speaker 1: really young when he died, just thirty five, and there
Speaker 1: isn't a whole lot of information about his death and
Speaker 1: what sorts of attention Sloan may have given him as
Speaker 1: his doctor. In Sloane's own words, Sloane made some notes
Speaker 1: about Monk's health, noting that he didn't seem entirely healthy
Speaker 1: even before the trip started. We also know that he
Speaker 1: bled Monk as a treatment on occasion, and he gave
Speaker 1: him medicine for jaundice. Monk had a history of heavy drinking,
Speaker 1: and it seemed that he continued to do so in
Speaker 1: Jamaica despite all advice against it from Sloane as well
Speaker 1: as other physicians. And it is from those other physicians
Speaker 1: that we actually have the information that we do about
Speaker 1: Monk's case. Sloan left it out of his published accounts,
Speaker 1: perhaps out of respect or gauging by the accounts that
Speaker 1: do exist, because it sounds like a truly awful end
Speaker 1: that maybe Sloane did not think would be appropriate for
Speaker 1: all readers. Even post mortem. The body of the Duke
Speaker 1: proved to be a challenging case for Sloane. It fell
Speaker 1: to him to figure out how to preserve his employer's
Speaker 1: remains for transit across the Atlantic when he had died
Speaker 1: in a climate where the locals insisted that you had
Speaker 1: to bury a body within twelve hours. The idea was
Speaker 1: the heat accelerated decomposition so much you had to do
Speaker 1: it that quickly. After an extensive preparation that involved removing
Speaker 1: some organs, filling the box with powder to dry it out,
Speaker 1: and wrapping it in linen that had been soaked in
Speaker 1: a mix of resin, wax and fat, Monk's body was
Speaker 1: sealed into a coffin covered with pitch and shipped back
Speaker 1: to England for burial. At that time, Sloane's time in
Speaker 1: the Caribbean came to a close, and during that time
Speaker 1: in the Caribbean, all of monks and Sloans and other
Speaker 1: people's activities on Jamaica were of course made possible by
Speaker 1: enslaved labor. The colonization of Jamaica goes all the way
Speaker 1: back to Columbus, when he claimed the island for Spain,
Speaker 1: even though there were people there already. In the early
Speaker 1: fifteen hundred, Spain built a settlement on Jamaica and enslaved
Speaker 1: the indigenous population of the island, the Arawaks. They sometimes
Speaker 1: go by other names as well. In addition to being
Speaker 1: worked to death, many Arawoks died as a result of
Speaker 1: exposure to diseases that were brought by the Spanish, and
Speaker 1: the high death rate of that indigenous population led the
Speaker 1: Spanish to start bringing in enslaved people from Africa to
Speaker 1: the island to fill those losses of the enslaved workforce.
Speaker 1: In sixteen fifty five, Britain battled Spain over possession of
Speaker 1: Jamaica and one and in sixteen seventy Britain formally took
Speaker 1: possession of the island. From there, the slave trade that
Speaker 1: went through Jamaica ramped up considerably. This is a very
Speaker 1: simplified and quick overview of how we get to the
Speaker 1: point where Hans Sloane was there. We have an episode,
Speaker 1: for example, on the Maroon Wars in the archive from
Speaker 1: twenty seventeen that covers two uprisings of the enslaved people
Speaker 1: of the island against the British colonists who ruled there.
Speaker 1: There is a lot more history and nuance to all
Speaker 1: of that, but we just want to make clear what
Speaker 1: was going on. Additionally, Sloane was actively involved in behaviors
Speaker 1: as a doctor that exploited the black enslaved workforce, particularly
Speaker 1: the women. There are instances in his notes where he
Speaker 1: prescribes that patients should drink breast milk from enslaved black women.
Speaker 1: He also add that enslaved women should serve as wet
Speaker 1: nurses for the families of white colonists. But when it
Speaker 1: came to treating illnesses in the black population, which was
Speaker 1: something that was absolutely part of his job, Sloane's notes
Speaker 1: indicate that he was less likely to believe them when
Speaker 1: they described their symptoms than he would his white patients. Overall,
Speaker 1: his writing about the non white population is lace throughout
Speaker 1: with racism and a sense of superiority. It broke my
Speaker 1: heart reading that, because these are problems that persist today
Speaker 1: in the medical community of listening to black people and
Speaker 1: other people of color when they talk about how they
Speaker 1: don't feel well, and it was going on in the
Speaker 1: sixteen hundreds as well. But the most Germane part of
Speaker 1: this story is that while there is a lot of
Speaker 1: discussion about Sloan collecting various flora and fauna on Jamaica,
Speaker 1: in most cases those samples were procured for him I
Speaker 1: enslaved people from West Africa. According to the British Museum,
Speaker 1: most of those people could be traced back to Ghana
Speaker 1: and Cotduvoir. And that was not only a matter of
Speaker 1: those people gathering samples at the direction of Sloan. These
Speaker 1: were people that had a deep understanding and knowledge about
Speaker 1: the flora of the island and that heavily informed the
Speaker 1: direction of the collection. So as we talk about his
Speaker 1: immense collection and others that belonged to various British collectors
Speaker 1: that would eventually come into his possession, the work involved
Speaker 1: in gathering those materials has to be credited to enslaved people.
Speaker 1: There is also another way in which slavery directly benefited
Speaker 1: Sloan's collecting that we're going to talk about in just
Speaker 1: a moment. One of the more fun sides to the
Speaker 1: story of the Jamaica trip, but one that we have
Speaker 1: to do some myth busting on, has to do with chocolate.
Speaker 1: Sloane is said to have discovered while there a local
Speaker 1: beverage made using the cacal plant, but he didn't really
Speaker 1: care for it. It upset his stomach and it was
Speaker 1: too bitter, so he decided to doctor it up by
Speaker 1: making it with milk instead of with water, and that
Speaker 1: version he loved. When he got back to London, he
Speaker 1: started making it there. Sloane touted the health benefits as
Speaker 1: well as the deliciousness of his drink, and soon it
Speaker 1: started popping up as an offering at London's apothecaries. And
Speaker 1: the story goes that Sloane's cacaw drink got the attention
Speaker 1: of a name that will likely be familiar to listeners,
Speaker 1: and that is the Cadbury Brothers, and from there it
Speaker 1: became a retail sensation. But that story isn't really accurate.
Speaker 1: The story is often held up as the tale of
Speaker 1: Hanslane inventing milk chocolate or hot chocolate or both, but
Speaker 1: it's a bit more complicated than that. Milk chocolate absolutely
Speaker 1: already existed. There were even recipes for it available in
Speaker 1: England well before Sloane's trip. There were also versions of
Speaker 1: hot chocol drinks made with milk and cinnamon in Jamaica
Speaker 1: before he got there. It does seem like he encountered
Speaker 1: it for the first time when he arrived there, and
Speaker 1: he might have even believed that he invented it. He
Speaker 1: definitely prescribed chocolate and milky hot chocolate beverages as a
Speaker 1: health drink once he was back in London, but he
Speaker 1: was also not the only physician to do that, nor
Speaker 1: was he the first. This seems more than anything to
Speaker 1: be a case where name recognition kind of drives the
Speaker 1: bus with this whole narrative, because most people knew his name,
Speaker 1: that name was used on commercially produced chocolate products in
Speaker 1: England and along the line, there was just a mythology
Speaker 1: that developed of his having invented it. Yeah, the Slow
Speaker 1: name has persisted into very modern times. As part of
Speaker 1: the Chocolate Legacy of England. After returning to London in
Speaker 1: sixteen ninety three, slow And became the Secretary of the
Speaker 1: Royal Society, and in this role he actually had a
Speaker 1: fairly significant impact. He restarted the publication of philosophical transactions
Speaker 1: and he expanded its offerings. He also picked back up
Speaker 1: with his medical practice. Despite having lost his first very
Speaker 1: high profile patient at a pretty early age, Sloan was
Speaker 1: in demand among the most powerful and important people in Britain.
Speaker 1: He continued to be the personal physician for the Duke
Speaker 1: of Albemarle's widow, and he became Physician Extraordinary to Queen Anne.
Speaker 1: He actually had quite an impressive collection of patients, which
Speaker 1: included names like John Locke, Samuel Peeps and recent frequent
Speaker 1: mention on the show Robert Walpole, among others. He was
Speaker 1: also employed as a physician at Christ's Hospital, which was
Speaker 1: a charity hospital that offered care to London's poor citizens.
Speaker 1: On May eleventh, sixteen ninety five, Sloane married a woman
Speaker 1: named Elizabeth Langley Rose. Elizabeth was the widow of Folk Rose,
Speaker 1: who was one of the doctors who, along with Sloane,
Speaker 1: had treated the Duke of Albemarle in Jamaica. Before his death,
Speaker 1: in addition to being a doctor, Rose had acquired several
Speaker 1: estates and plantations in Jamaica. When Rose died in sixteen
Speaker 1: ninety four, those passed to Elizabeth, and through Elizabeth, that
Speaker 1: considerable worth passed to Hans Sloane, and that money enabled
Speaker 1: him to continue collecting at a rate that would not
Speaker 1: have been possible with only his income as a physician.
Speaker 1: He received one third of the profits of the Rose plantations.
Speaker 1: And this is the second way that slavery enabled his
Speaker 1: work that we alluded to earlier. Sloane had enough money
Speaker 1: coming in through Elizabeth's Caribbean properties that he was able
Speaker 1: to donate the entirety of his salary at the Charity
Speaker 1: Hospital back to that organization. He and Elizabeth had three children,
Speaker 1: but only two, both of them daughters, survived until adulthood.
Speaker 1: Several years after his trip to Jamaica, in sixteen ninety six,
Speaker 1: Sloane published a project that he had been working on
Speaker 1: since he completed his travels, and that was a catalog
Speaker 1: of his plant collection from abroad. The Latin language catalog
Speaker 1: was titled Catalogus Plantarum k in Insula Jamaica, and while
Speaker 1: it was his first book about the work he did
Speaker 1: while he was there, it was not his last. He
Speaker 1: compiled a much larger project in two volumes titled in brevity,
Speaker 1: The Natural History of Jamaica. Natural History of Jamaica, which
Speaker 1: is also titled A Voyage to the Islands Madeira, Barbados, Nevis,
Speaker 1: Saint Christopher's and Jamaica, took a long time to complete.
Speaker 1: His first volume was published in seventeen oh seven, eleven
Speaker 1: years after the Plant Catalog, and it was another eighteen
Speaker 1: years before he published the second volume. There's an event
Speaker 1: that takes place in seventeen fourteen associated with Sloane that's
Speaker 1: differ dificult to substantiate, although it does make sense given
Speaker 1: some of the things that happened after it. So it's
Speaker 1: often been repeated that as Queen Anne was on her
Speaker 1: deathbed that year, Sloane cared for her, and while she
Speaker 1: was ill, there was a Tory move to try to
Speaker 1: put an exiled Stewart on the throne. And the part
Speaker 1: of all of this that is alleged to involve Sloan
Speaker 1: is that he is believed, although there is not hard proof,
Speaker 1: to have kept Queen Anne alive long enough to get
Speaker 1: the documentation in place to ensure the Hanoverian succession and
Speaker 1: the coronation of King George the First. King George the
Speaker 1: First also held Sloane as his personal physician, and in
Speaker 1: seventeen sixteen Hans Sloane became a baronet by order of
Speaker 1: the king. It was extremely unusual for a physician, no
Speaker 1: matter how well known or respected, to be granted a
Speaker 1: hereditary title. In fact, it had never happened before this,
Speaker 1: and one theory is that this was a form of
Speaker 1: thank you from George the First for Sloane's service in
Speaker 1: securing the hanover throne. We don't really know that for sure,
Speaker 1: and we probably never will, but we do know something
Speaker 1: quite interesting about the time that Sloane served George the First.
Speaker 1: It was while he was the king's physician that Sloane
Speaker 1: adopted the policy that the entire royal family should receive
Speaker 1: smallpox inoculations. He had also had his own family inoculated,
Speaker 1: which was very forward thinking. Edward Jenner's work to find
Speaker 1: a smallpox vaccine was still decades away, but this is
Speaker 1: another instance where progressive work came at a human cost.
Speaker 1: Sloane tested the process on incarcerated men in Newgate Jail
Speaker 1: before administering inoculations to the Royal family. After suffering a
Speaker 1: stroke in June of seventeen twenty seven, George the First
Speaker 1: died and he was succeeded by his son, George the Second, who,
Speaker 1: like the previous two monarchs, kept Hans Sloane on as
Speaker 1: a Royal physician eight years before George the seconds ascension.
Speaker 1: In seventeen nineteen, the Royal College of Physicians elected Hans
Speaker 1: Sloan its president and he held that post for the
Speaker 1: next sixteen years. During his time as President of the
Speaker 1: Royal College of Physicians, Sloane also served as President of
Speaker 1: the Royal Society. He gained that position in seventeen twenty
Speaker 1: seven and he served in that role for fourteen years.
Speaker 1: So for eight years he was helming both of those
Speaker 1: societies at the same time. Kind of makes him like
Speaker 1: the Grand Puba of all things science in London. He
Speaker 1: ended his presidency with the Royal Society in seventeen forty
Speaker 1: one when he retired from his work. But though he
Speaker 1: wasn't in active practice or holding office with any professional societies,
Speaker 1: Sloane was not idle in his retirement. Throughout his career
Speaker 1: in medicine, Sloan had been particularly interested in ie health.
Speaker 1: In seventeen forty five he published Account of a Medicine
Speaker 1: for soreness, weakness, and other distempers of the eyes. We're
Speaker 1: going to take a break here to hear from the
Speaker 1: sponsors who keep stuff you missed in history class going,
Speaker 1: and when we come back, we're actually going to backtrack
Speaker 1: on the timeline just a little bit to focus on
Speaker 1: Sir Hans Sloan's collection of specimens and their fate. After
Speaker 1: his trip as a young physician to Jamaica, Sloan was
Speaker 1: completely bitten by the collecting bug, and he continued to
Speaker 1: gather specimens even when he wasn't traveling. He developed a
Speaker 1: network and had people that would go out and seek
Speaker 1: out collections and buy them for him, and he also
Speaker 1: did this by acquiring other collectors' collections. For example, when
Speaker 1: William Charlton died in seventeen oh two, Sloane got his
Speaker 1: cabinet of curiosities. Charlton, whose name had been Courting before
Speaker 1: he changed it, was from a very wealthy family that
Speaker 1: had made a fortune in the Caribbean starting in the
Speaker 1: sixteen twenties, so another example of a collection that clearly
Speaker 1: was built on the back of enslaved labor. Charlton was
Speaker 1: a member of Sloane's social circle, as was apothecary James Pettiver,
Speaker 1: who had also assembled an impressive collection, which Sloane got
Speaker 1: when Petiver died in seventeen eighteen. His collection became so
Speaker 1: enormous that his house at number three Bloomsbury, where he
Speaker 1: and Elizabeth had moved in seventeen hundred, was bursting, and
Speaker 1: so he bought the house next door as well. By
Speaker 1: the time he purchased Number four Bloomsbury, he had become
Speaker 1: a well known and well respected name, not just in
Speaker 1: England but throughout Europe, and as a consequence, he and
Speaker 1: Elizabeth entertained a lot of famous visitors. Carl Naeus came
Speaker 1: to see Sloane's remarkable assortment of specimens. Hans Sloan had
Speaker 1: to move his collection one more time in seventeen forty
Speaker 1: two to a space that could better accommodate it. That
Speaker 1: was a manor house in Chelsea, where King Henry the
Speaker 1: Eighth had once lived, and it was right next to
Speaker 1: the Chelsea Physic Garden. That was the place where he
Speaker 1: had studied plants in his early years to memorize them.
Speaker 1: He continued to receive an array of famous guests there
Speaker 1: for visits. The Sloane home was not open to the public,
Speaker 1: but people could use their social connections to basically be like,
Speaker 1: do you know Sir Hans Sloan? Can you get me
Speaker 1: in touch with them? And then they would make appointments
Speaker 1: and come to the house and see everything. Sloan's retirement
Speaker 1: in seventeen forty one had not been due to a
Speaker 1: desire to do less. It was because he was physically
Speaker 1: unable to keep going at the pace that he had
Speaker 1: maintained for decades. He had been having some sort of
Speaker 1: ailment or condition that caused paralysis at times. As we mentioned,
Speaker 1: he did continue to work as much as he could
Speaker 1: for as long as he could. Sloane died on January eleventh,
Speaker 1: seventeen fifty three, in London, and he was ninety two.
Speaker 1: His death announcement in the papers read quote Thursday morning.
Speaker 1: Died at his house in Chelsea, very much advanced in years,
Speaker 1: but blessed with all his faculties of understanding. To the
Speaker 1: last of his life, Sir Hans Sloane baronet. During Sloane's life,
Speaker 1: he had amassed a collection of more than seventy one
Speaker 1: thousand items and more than fifty thousand books. What happens
Speaker 1: to such a collection when its owner passes without heirs
Speaker 1: who want to deal with it. Remember, he had only
Speaker 1: surviving daughters. While he was on his deathbed, he stated
Speaker 1: that he wished to bequeath his massive collection to Britain,
Speaker 1: but though the collection was a gift, it could only
Speaker 1: be given if Parliament agreed to pay twenty thousand pounds
Speaker 1: so that his executors could manage the transfer and any
Speaker 1: necessary work that came with it, and so that the
Speaker 1: collection could be open to the public. That had been
Speaker 1: Sloane's aim in his collecting for quite some time. He
Speaker 1: had believed for years that he was putting together a
Speaker 1: repository of information for Britain. Parliament agreed to his terms,
Speaker 1: and when Sloane passed, the whole lot became the property
Speaker 1: of the country, and this is how the collection of
Speaker 1: the British Museum began. This provision Sloane made that his
Speaker 1: possessions should be conveyed to the government so they could
Speaker 1: launch a public museum. Was like many things about his life.
Speaker 1: Unusual museums before this and most of Europe were operated
Speaker 1: by churches or royal houses. This concept of a museum
Speaker 1: that anyone could visit was quite novel. The British Museum
Speaker 1: Act seventeen fifty three established the British Museum on paper
Speaker 1: and provided for the acquisition of Sloane's collection, as well
Speaker 1: as other manuscript collections. It provided for the world's first free,
Speaker 1: national public museum. Over the next several years, a building
Speaker 1: was a coincidentally near one of Sloane's early homes in London,
Speaker 1: and in seventeen fifty nine the British Museum opened its doors.
Speaker 1: This was not the only museum to get parts of
Speaker 1: Sloane's life's work. The Natural History Museum is home to
Speaker 1: his collection of one hundred twenty thousand dried plant samples,
Speaker 1: which are contained in nearly three hundred volumes. Sloane had
Speaker 1: stipulated in his will that his collection had to remain
Speaker 1: in the city of London, quote where they may, by
Speaker 1: the great confluence of people, be most used. He had
Speaker 1: also stipulated that the collection not be separated. The Natural
Speaker 1: History Museum didn't get the plant collection until the eighteen eighties,
Speaker 1: and it is in the city, so it still falls
Speaker 1: more or less in the spirit of his wishes. According
Speaker 1: to the museum, this plant collection quote is the largest
Speaker 1: surviving botanical collection from the early modern period, about fifteen
Speaker 1: hundred to eighteen hundred, and contains plants collected in more
Speaker 1: than seventy countries and territory worldwide. Antarctica and Australasia are
Speaker 1: the only continents not represented. In nineteen seventy three, the
Speaker 1: British Library also got some of Sloan's books and manuscripts,
Speaker 1: and while there have been a lot of efforts made
Speaker 1: at conservation and specially built spaces to house the collection
Speaker 1: in its various homes, there have been some pieces lost
Speaker 1: over the years, particularly some of his preserved small animal
Speaker 1: specimens like lizards and birds. Some of those have not survived.
Speaker 1: Some did not even survive When he was alive. There
Speaker 1: are stories of his friends dropping stuff, for like putting
Speaker 1: their drinks on top of manuscripts and really getting him
Speaker 1: quite angry. Everything he ever collected was not there when
Speaker 1: he passed. Today there is a statue of Sir Hans
Speaker 1: Sloan in the Chelsea Physic Garden. A statue was first
Speaker 1: dedicated to him there in the years immediately following his death.
Speaker 1: Then in two thousand and two, Queen Elizabeth the Second
Speaker 1: unveiled a copy of the statue in Sloane's hometown of Killiele,
Speaker 1: and in twenty fourteen the Physic Garden got a new
Speaker 1: version of the Sloane statue after the first one had
Speaker 1: become quite brittle and was breaking down. Sir Hon Sloan,
Speaker 1: I have feelings. I have listener mail from our listener,
Speaker 1: Sarah Grayton, and I'm reading this too late to fix
Speaker 1: the thing that she says we should fix. Sarah writes, Hey,
Speaker 1: Ali and Tracy, just to start, I love your podcast
Speaker 1: and I've been listening for years. I've learned so much
Speaker 1: while enjoying myself. Thank you. I wanted to give you
Speaker 1: a heads up about your use of the term British
Speaker 1: Isles in your recent episode, as I know you are
Speaker 1: both sensitive to the correct terms to use. While I
Speaker 1: know it is used as a geographical term, it is
Speaker 1: controversial as it implies ownership of the entire island of
Speaker 1: Ireland by the United Kingdom. The Irish government does not
Speaker 1: recognize the term and discourages its use. Irish people generally
Speaker 1: prefer to just say Ireland Britain. I think it's important
Speaker 1: to use terms that are acceptable to both British and
Speaker 1: Irish people. Thanks. I don't have a pet myself allergies,
Speaker 1: but I attach a pet tax my brother's king Charles Liz,
Speaker 1: who is just the best dog ever, best regard, Sarah.
Speaker 1: This is one of those things where I asked an
Speaker 1: Irish person, but they were Irish American and they were like,
Speaker 1: I think that's cool. So you know my apology. I
Speaker 1: feel like we had a conversation about this in the
Speaker 1: show sometime very long ago, because I tend to default
Speaker 1: more to saying Britain and Ireland when we're recording stuff.
Speaker 1: But I have also heard people that live in the
Speaker 1: other islands that are also part of Britain feeling excluded
Speaker 1: by that language. So it's one of those things where
Speaker 1: I have felt like there's not one perfect term yes
Speaker 1: that works the best. Yes. So you know, as you
Speaker 1: are correct, we never want to make anybody feel excluded
Speaker 1: or offended, but it is a little bit of tricky
Speaker 1: yeah footing to actually find something that makes everybody yeah,
Speaker 1: feel included and acknowledged. So I surely apologize to anybody
Speaker 1: who did, feel, of course, excluded or or hurt in
Speaker 1: some way by that. Yeah, and if any of those
Speaker 1: ghosts were chagrined, also to them, although many of them
Speaker 1: go back far enough that the modern politics and thinking
Speaker 1: is probably a mystery to them as well. But thank you,
Speaker 1: I really do appreciate it, Sarah. If you would like
Speaker 1: to write us, you can do so at History Podcast
Speaker 1: at iHeartRadio dot com. You can also subscribe to the
Speaker 1: podcast on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you listen to
Speaker 1: your favorite shows. Stuff you Missed in History Class is
Speaker 1: a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit
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