The CHOCOLATE CONNECTION

The CHOCOLATE CONNECTION: Hans Sloane & Jamaica

The book exhibit pulls together three seemingly unconnected topics, 17th century physician Hans Sloane, chocolate, and Jamaica. 2010 marks the 350th anniversary of the birth of Sloane (1660-1753), a British physician and naturalist who popularized drinking chocolate and advocated the use of liquid milk chocolate in Britain as a medicinal beverage. Cadbury, the chocolate manufacturer, briefly used Sloane’s recipe in marketing its own version of the liquid chocolate. Sloane learned about drinking chocolate when he traveled to Jamaica in the late 17th century, but chocolate had been known to the native peoples of South and Central America for centuries, long before Sloane’s introduction to it, and the Spanish were the first to bring chocolate to Europe as a result of their early encounters with these peoples. Because Sloane and chocolate collided on Jamaica, we take this opportunity to showcase some works from Lloyd’s collection on these topics and demonstrate how they interact with each other.

The book exhibit features Sloane’s 1696 publication on the botany of Jamaica, which includes, of course, an illustration of the cacao tree. The exhibit also contains several exquisite botanical illustrations of cacao by some of history’s master artists, as well as historical information on chocolate before Sloane’s introduction to it; and, books on the history of chocolate production and manufacturing. Nineteenth-century photographs by Curtis Gates Lloyd, one of the library’s founders, of his trip to Jamaica and the West Indies illustrating chocolate plantations and life for imported laborers will also be on display. For more information, call 513-721-3707; or, visit Lloyd’s website at http://www.lloydlibrary.org/

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