Editing Hans Sloane (section)

== The British Museum and Chelsea Physic Garden ==
[[File:Old and new London - a narrative of its history, its people, and its places (1873) (14778355285).jpg|thumb|left|The Tudor House of his [[Chelsea Manor]].]]
[[File:Bust of Sir Hans Sloane (1730s) by Michael Rysbrack, currently housed in the British Museum in London (cropped).jpg|thumb|upright|Bust of Sloane by [[Michael Rysbrack]] (1730s) in the [[British Museum]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/british-museum-sloane-bust|title=Debate flares as British Museum moves bust of slave-owning founder Hans Sloane|first=Gareth|last=Harris|date=August 25, 2020|newspaper=The Art Newspaper|access-date=August 28, 2020}}</ref>]]
[[File:Hans Sloane bust.jpg|thumb|upright|Bust by [[Michael Rysbrack]], main foyer, [[British Library]]<!-- date needed -->]]

Sloane's purchase of the [[Chelsea Manor|manor of Chelsea]], London, in 1712, provided the grounds for the [[Chelsea Physic Garden]].

Over his lifetime, Sloane collected over 71,000 objects: books, manuscripts, drawings, coins and medals, plant specimens and others.<ref name="exploring-london.com">{{cite web|title=Elisabeth Langley Rose – Exploring London|url=https://exploring-london.com/tag/elisabeth-langley-rose/|website=exploring-london.com|date=4 July 2011 }}</ref> His great stroke as a collector was to acquire in 1702 (by bequest, conditional on paying of certain debts) the cabinet of curiosities owned by [[William Courten]], who had made collecting the business of his life.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}<ref name="Kusukawa2016">{{cite journal|last1=Kusukawa|first1=Sachiko|title=William Courten's lists of 'Things Bought' from the late seventeenth century|journal=Journal of the History of Collections|year=2016|pages=fhv040|issn=0954-6650|doi=10.1093/jhc/fhv040|url=https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/254200}}</ref><ref name="Walmsley2003">{{cite book|last=Walmsley|first=Peter |title=Locke's Essay and the Rhetoric of Science|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZrQzWzisAvMC&pg=PA160|year=2003|publisher=Bucknell University Press|isbn=978-0-8387-5543-3|pages=160–}}</ref>

When Sloane retired in 1741, his library and cabinet of curiosities, which he took with him from [[Bloomsbury]] to his house in Chelsea, had grown to be of unique value.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} He had acquired the extensive natural history collections of William Courten, Cardinal [[Filippo Antonio Gualterio (cardinal)|Filippo Antonio Gualterio]], [[James Petiver]], [[Nehemiah Grew]], [[Leonard Plukenet]], the [[Mary Somerset, Duchess of Beaufort (1630–1715)|Duchess of Beaufort]], [[Adam Buddle]], [[Paul Hermann (botanist)|Paul Hermann]], [[Franz Kiggelaer]] and [[Herman Boerhaave]].