Monday, January 27, 2014

London Foundling Museum

 
The London Foundling Museum, one of the lesser known museums that I visited last fall, was the first home built to house London's huge number of abandoned children. 
 
It was founded by a sea captain, Thomas Coram, and opened in 1741 to address a heartbreaking problem

In the earliest days, when mothers brought their newborn babies to the hospital there was a lottery to determine if the baby would be admitted.  The mother had to select a ball from a bin; if it was the right color, her baby would be taken in.  Later a law was passed that every baby had to be accepted and a basket was placed outside the hospital for mothers to leave their infant.
Mothers were allowed to leave a letter to be kept at the hospital for their child, but since many could not write, they were also allowed to leave a token that would identify the child as theirs if they ever sought to be reunited.  At the museum is a sad and moving exhibit of these items: coins, buttons, fabric scraps, cheap jewelry, a poem.  Only a very few ever were able to return to claim their child.
Many of the babies were relinquished because their mothers were servants in the big houses of London who would be unable to work with a child to watch.  What a heartbreaking choice for a mother to have to make--essentially her life (and that of others who depended on her job) or her child's.

Children were only admitted in their first days of life. They went to wet nurses in the country until they were 4-5 years old and then returned to the hospital to live. At 16 girls were apprenticed out as servants for four years, boys at 14 for seven years.
 


The survival rate of the children was abysmal.  In a four year period, almost 15,000 babies were presented to the hospital; 4,400 survived to the age to be apprenticed. 


Coram helped to fund the Foundling Hospital by opening the first public art gallery in London.  Other funds came from benefit concerts generously given by George Frideric Handel in the hospital chapel. 
 

(photo from Wikipedia)

The hospital was demolished in 1926.  The grounds are now a park called Coram's Fields, which can only be entered by adults with a child in tow. 




While the exhibit was rather small and hard to view, I did enjoy the video interviews of adults remembering their days at the Foundling Hospital (when groups thinned and I could actually hear!). 

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19 comments:

  1. I found the tokens the saddest items I have ever seen. Although many children died many were saved and given the means to earn a living. The foundling children were the first group of orphaned and abandoned children to receive vaccinations.

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    1. Interesting --I didn't know about the vaccinations. There are so any more interesting things I could have written about this place and topic. It's so heartening that Coram persevered through so any difficulties to get the idea going and the hospital built, saving many of London's children and giving them better lives than they would have had.
      The tokens made me cry, as did the thing that had the lottery balls in it. Imagine being that mother who made the horrible decision to relinquish only to find that the hoe could not take the baby.
      Thanks for your comments.

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  2. Shocking how few of the abandoned babies survived and how wistful the tokens their mothers left behind. The harshness society imposes on the poor I suspect still exist in parts of the world today. Yet the home founded by Thomas Coram shows that some people do step up and try to do what is right in difficult situations.

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  3. It is so heartbreaking that millions of children through the ages have had to be relinquished or given up for various reasons. Most of them didn't suffer good fates as you point out. There are still millions around the world who go through this every day. Very sad but those of us who know can try to do our part to help, just as George Handel and Thomas Coram did in their day. Thanks for the interesting insight.

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  4. What an amazing reminder of a different time. I laugh when people talk about the "good old days" - I'll take today's world and modern medicine any day!

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  5. I had not heard about this museum and its history – how terribly sad. I agree with Al, that the good old days were not that good for many people, above all, children.

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  6. This is so very interesting. The painting really depicts the anguish and heartbreak of the mothers who had to give up their babies to an uncertain future. How awful that so few of the babies survived. Thank you for showing this to us.

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  7. What a sad sad story about the hospital.

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    1. I enjoyed reading your post. How difficult life was for single mothers then. They were humiliated and forced to give their babies away for adoption if they hadn't given them to this foundling hospital. I didn't know Handel had given benefit concerts! Good on him!
      Wil, ABCW Team

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  8. So interesting to read. Interesting paintings also.

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  9. oh my, what a heartbreaking story and a heartbreaking decision for all those mothers.
    Interesting how only parents with children along can visit the park.
    Have a wonderful week and thank you for stopping by my blog today.

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  10. So many tragic stories, but I find it heartwarming that the hospital was supported from the beginning by the arts.
    Thank you for visiting Comptonia and leaving a comment :)

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  11. That is a terrible story ! I know that a lot of orphans were shipped to Australia as servants ! I read some books about that.

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  12. Tragic, not sure I would like to visit. What a sad place, forgotten children ever hopeful..:(

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  13. What a sad place it must have been. Sad times too. It must have been awful for the mothers as well as the children.

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  14. That is quite a moving post. I can't imagine being in that position to not be able to care for my own children. So sad but having a place like this was a blessing for the kids. Wow.

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  15. A sad story indeed. Even the 4400 surviving children couldn't have had a good life.

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  16. Such an interesting post, but oh so sad. I can't imagine having to make that decision.

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  17. Heartbreaking time in history. Thank you for sharing this important history though. A rather ironic memorial to those poor children to have a child's park made ... since I imagine most of those kids never ever got to play. I'm sure there's a a Dickens story that talks about one of these foundling homes -- I should remember which one.

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