Remembering Dr. Sloane: Masculinity and the Making of an Eighteenth-Century Physician

By the 1720s Sir Hans Sloane was at the centre of London's eighteenth‐century medical and scientific world; he was a royal physician, President of the Royal Society and President of the Royal College of Physicians. This article examines Sloane's use of self‐fashioning early in his career, which was key to his later successes. Sloane's career‐building offers an opportunity to consider the role of gender in men's medical and scientific activities. This article argues that Sloane used existing concepts of ideal manhood – self‐management, independence and polite sociability – to establish his medical practice and scientific networks.