Collecting the World

Collecting the World PDF Author: James Delbourgo
Publisher: Belknap Press
ISBN: 9780674237483
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 544

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Book Description
Winner of the Leo Gershoy Award Winner of the Louis Gottschalk Prize A Times Book of the Week When the British Museum opened its doors in 1759, it was the first free national public museum in the world. Collecting the World tells the story of the eccentric collector whose thirst for universal knowledge brought it into being. A man of insatiable curiosity and wide-ranging interests, Hans Sloane assembled a collection of antiquities, oddities, and artifacts from around the British Empire to form the most famous cabinet of curiosities of its time. With few curbs on his passion, he established a network of agents to supply him with objects from China, India, the Caribbean, and beyond. Wampum beads, rare manuscripts, a shoe made of human skin: nothing was off limits. The first biography of Sloane based on his complete writings, Collecting the World portrays one of the Enlightenment's most original luminaries. "A magnificent scholarly coup and an enthralling read... It conveys the excitement of original research as well as the thrill of tracking exotic curiosities to their source." --Sunday Times "Delbourgo's engrossing new biography situates Sloane within the welter of intellectual and political crosscurrents that marked his times." --New York Times Book Review "A superb biography--humane, judicious and as passionately curious as Sloane himself." --Times Literary Supplement "A superb book, enjoyably written, beautifully illustrated, and based on deep knowledge of the sources." --The Telegraph

Collecting the World

Collecting the World PDF Author: James Delbourgo
Publisher: Belknap Press
ISBN: 9780674237483
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 544

Get Book Here

Book Description
Winner of the Leo Gershoy Award Winner of the Louis Gottschalk Prize A Times Book of the Week When the British Museum opened its doors in 1759, it was the first free national public museum in the world. Collecting the World tells the story of the eccentric collector whose thirst for universal knowledge brought it into being. A man of insatiable curiosity and wide-ranging interests, Hans Sloane assembled a collection of antiquities, oddities, and artifacts from around the British Empire to form the most famous cabinet of curiosities of its time. With few curbs on his passion, he established a network of agents to supply him with objects from China, India, the Caribbean, and beyond. Wampum beads, rare manuscripts, a shoe made of human skin: nothing was off limits. The first biography of Sloane based on his complete writings, Collecting the World portrays one of the Enlightenment's most original luminaries. "A magnificent scholarly coup and an enthralling read... It conveys the excitement of original research as well as the thrill of tracking exotic curiosities to their source." --Sunday Times "Delbourgo's engrossing new biography situates Sloane within the welter of intellectual and political crosscurrents that marked his times." --New York Times Book Review "A superb biography--humane, judicious and as passionately curious as Sloane himself." --Times Literary Supplement "A superb book, enjoyably written, beautifully illustrated, and based on deep knowledge of the sources." --The Telegraph

From Books to Bezoars

From Books to Bezoars PDF Author: Alison Walker
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780712358804
Category : Antiquarians
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This well-illustrated volume offers fresh perspectives on the great eighteenth-century physician, naturalist, and collector Sir Hans Sloane (1660-1753), whose extensive holdings formed the basis of the British Museum and its offspring, the Natural History Museum and the British Library. The colonial milieu within which Sloane operated gets prominence here, particularly the time he spent in Jamaica. Attention is paid to his enormous network of acquaintances and correspondents throughout the world as well as to the way his collecting activities permeated every aspect of his life. Other essays consider the museum specimens accumulated by Sloane--both natural and man-made--shedding new light on his aims for acquiring and organizing them. A fascinating look at the man behind three of the United Kingdom's most famous museums, From Books to Bezoars will appeal to students and scholars of eighteenth century studies, early modern science, and the history of the book.

A Voyage to the Islands Madera, Barbados, Nieves, S. Christophers and Jamaica

A Voyage to the Islands Madera, Barbados, Nieves, S. Christophers and Jamaica PDF Author: Sir Hans Sloane
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Botanical illustration
Languages : en
Pages : 922

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Book Description


Sir Hans Sloane

Sir Hans Sloane PDF Author: Arthur MacGregor
Publisher: British Museum Press
ISBN:
Category : Antiques & Collectibles
Languages : en
Pages : 316

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Book Description
Sir Hans Sloane was a considerable figure in his time. He was the natural successor to Sir Isaac Newton as President of the Royal Society, President of the Royal College of Physicians and the friend of John Ray, Robert Boyle and other principal figures in the learned community of his day. He was also the author of a major two volume Natural History of Jamaica, the result of personal fieldwork on the island while a young man.

The Collectors

The Collectors PDF Author: Mark Carine
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780565094881
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This lavishly illustrated book reveals the lives of the people who assembled the greatest botanical collection of the Early Modern period, with stories of adventure and discovery across every continent. Sir Hans Sloane's herbarium, housed at the Natural History Museum in London, is probably the most extensive herbarium collection of its kind. It exemplifies the rich history of exploration and discovery in the period preceding Cook's voyages, and it remains of considerable scientific and historical value today. Assembled between the 1680s and 1750s, it comprises an estimated 120,000 pressed plant specimens. More than 300 people contributed to its development across more than 70 countries.

Enlightenment

Enlightenment PDF Author: Kim Sloan
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 312

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Book Description
The Enlightenment was a period of intense activity devoted to discovery and learning about the natural world, the past and other civilizations. Classification, collecting and deciphering were all important stages on the way to understanding the world and its inhabitants. The King's Library was built to house the books donated from the royal libraries of King George II and his grandson King George III, and they epitomize the interest in the late 18th and early 19th centuries in scholarship and study. Aimed at the general reader and relevant to many academic diciplines, this book explores the ways people acquired new information, organized their ideas and reached their conclusions.

A Curious Herbal Containing Five Hundred Cuts of the Most Useful Plants which are Now Used in the Practice of Physick Engraved... by Elizabeth Blackwell...

A Curious Herbal Containing Five Hundred Cuts of the Most Useful Plants which are Now Used in the Practice of Physick Engraved... by Elizabeth Blackwell... PDF Author: Elizabeth Blackwell
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 652

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Book Description


The British Museum

The British Museum PDF Author: David Mackenzie Wilson
Publisher: Peoples of the Past
ISBN:
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 454

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Book Description
The British Museum is the oldest publicly funded museum in the world. This volume tells the story of the collections, the buildings that house them, and the people who have administered and curated them since its foundation in 1753.

Benjamin Franklin in London

Benjamin Franklin in London PDF Author: George Goodwin
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300220243
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 396

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Book Description
An account of Franklin's British years.

The Rosetta Stone

The Rosetta Stone PDF Author: E. A. Wallis Budge
Publisher: Courier Corporation
ISBN: 0486157229
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 372

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Book Description
Fascinating account of great linguistic detective story — discovery of Stone, history of the decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphics; work of Young, Champollion, other scholars; much more. 23 photographs. Bibliography.