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Mohrbooks Literary Agency
Sebastian Ritscher |
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COLLECTING THE WORLD
Hans Sloane and the Origins of the British Museum
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.
James Delbourgo is recognized as the leading expert on the life and career of Sir Hans Sloane and a leading academic authority on the history of science and imperialism in the early modern world. Trained in the histories of science and empire at the University of Cambridge and Columbia University, and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, he is a tenured Associate Professor of History at Rutgers University, having previously taught at McGill University, Montreal, where he directed the program in History and Philosophy of Science. His first book, A Most Amazing Scene of Wonders: Electricity and Enlightenment in Early America (Harvard University Press, 2006), was awarded Harvard's Thomas J. Wilson Prize for the best first book in any field, and was runner-up for the Canadian Historical Association's Wallace K. Ferguson Prize.
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.
James Delbourgo is recognized as the leading expert on the life and career of Sir Hans Sloane and a leading academic authority on the history of science and imperialism in the early modern world. Trained in the histories of science and empire at the University of Cambridge and Columbia University, and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, he is a tenured Associate Professor of History at Rutgers University, having previously taught at McGill University, Montreal, where he directed the program in History and Philosophy of Science. His first book, A Most Amazing Scene of Wonders: Electricity and Enlightenment in Early America (Harvard University Press, 2006), was awarded Harvard's Thomas J. Wilson Prize for the best first book in any field, and was runner-up for the Canadian Historical Association's Wallace K. Ferguson Prize.
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Book
Published 2017-07-31 by Harvard University Press |
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Book
Published 2017-07-31 by Harvard University Press |