Hans Sloane’s Collection of Vegetables and Vegetable Substances originally consisted of 12,752 botanical specimens, most housed in small glass and wooden boxes. Sealed inside these boxes were parts of plants such as seeds, beans, leaves, bark and gum, that were collected between the 1680s and 1750s. All sorts of people from around the world were involved in the transportation and exchange of these specimens. In London, Sloane had these items put into boxes, where they were numbered and a corresponding description of the item was entered into his manuscript catalogue.

Today, the Vegetable Substances collection comprises more than 8000 surviving specimens/boxes and the original three-volume manuscript catalogue. This dataset includes a transcription of said manuscript and all 12,752 handwritten entries. At the core of these entries is information about what the object is, and from here, the level of detail is varied. This ranges from information about people and places, local uses of plants, margin annotations (which detail cabinet and drawer numbers where Sloane kept these things in his house) to bibliographic references, and modern determinations.

Users are recommended to consult the 'Data description and change log' before using the resources provided here.

A version of the transcription can also be found in the NHM library catalogue (Primo), together with images of the manuscript catalogue pages: https://nhm.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/44NHM_INST/16ehpmm/alma9936352402081.

Please note: This dataset preserves the data in Sloane’s catalogue in their original form to retain authenticity and facilitate research. As such, some entries contain language that may be offensive and that is not acceptable nor appropriate in an inclusive environment.

This work was supported by a grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Council Towards a National Collection Programme (Grant AH/W003457/1).