This is brilliant to see. Acknowledgement & provenance is first step to productive change to make our incredible public institutions truly world class. The resources that founded @britishlibrary, @britishmuseum @NHM_London were gifted by Sir Hans Sloane.
A thread on Sloane. (1/) https://twitter.com/BLprintheritage/status/1278970516460769282

Sloane was a physician and collector who in 1687 travelled to Jamaica as the personal physician of the governor there, the Duke of Albermarle. Britain acquired Jamaica in 1670 and used the land to farm sugar and other crops with slaves trafficked from West Africa. (2/)

Sloane kept a detailed journal of his travels, including the horrifying torture used on slaves, including slow burning alive and other atrocities. As an employee of the governor, Sloane's earnings came from this horror. (3/)

While in Jamaica, Sloane also travelled extensively, gathering a large variety of natural specimens which would all form part of the collection he would eventually donate to the British state. (4/)

Sloane would go on to marry Elisabeth Langley Rose, widow of one of Jamaica's principle slave buyers, Fulke Rose. She was the heiress of sugar plantations and the slaves who worked them in Jamaica. (5/)

It would be using the vast wealth gained from his wife, drawn from slavery, & income as a physician that Sloane would purchase the mass of his collection of books & specimens. He came to be known as the 'foremost toyman of his time' for his vast collection of curiosities. (6/)

Over his lifetime Sloane collected over 71,000 objects of which at least 45,000 were printed items. On death Sloane bequeathed his entire collection to the nation. They would form the founding collections for the Natural History Museum, British Museum & British Library. (7/)

To this day, Sloane is celebrated. His bust adorns the main foyer in the British Library. The Sloane Printed Books Catalogue has been dedicatedly cataloguing and digitising his printed collection - this is valuable work. (8/)

However, few know the roots of Sloane's collections that came to form our most treasured national institutions. Purchased with the proceeds of slavery, our founding collections draw a direct line to the violence on black lives in the plantations of Jamaica. (9/)

It is time we acknowledged the tragic blood staining our pages and objects. This step taken by @BLprintheritage is crucial and absolutely to be applauded. I certainly will observe with interest where things go from here.  @rolykeating @liz_jolly  (10)