The Foundling Museum, located in Bloomsbury, London WC1, tells the story of London’s first home for foundlings which was established in 1739 to care for destitute and abandoned children. Three major figures in British social history – philanthropist Thomas Coram, artist William Hogarth and composer George Frideric Handel – were instrumental in campaigning for funds to establish the charity, and more than 20,000 children passed through its doors between its foundation and change of focus in 1954. The Museum today houses a remarkable collection of art, period interiors and social history in a restored and refurbished building adjacent to the original site of the Hospital.
The Foundling Hospital continues today as leading children’s charity Coram. From headquarters on the original site of the Foundling Hospital, Coram provides intensive practical and emotional support to more than 15,000 children, young people and their families each year, and reaches a further 800,000 children through educational programmes across the UK. Our wide ranging work includes adoption creative therapies and supported housing.
For more information, The Foundling Museum has a new exhibition that captures the lives and times of twentieth century foundlings. Foundling Voices opens at the Foundling Museum, 40 Brunswick Square, London, on April 14th 2011 for six months
The fascinating personal stories of children brought up in care at the Foundling Hospital form the centrepiece of this major new exhibition in London’s Foundling Museum this summer. Foundling Voices features the experiences of 74 former foundlings whose memories of their childhoods in the first half of the 20th century are graphically preserved in audio interviews, photographs and film. Tales of family separation, the stigma of illegitimacy, a spartan school education, wartime heroism and the search for birth mothers are all part of this rich social history, which is of interest to casual visitors, students and history buffs alike. The exhibition is funded by a £322,000 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund and is part of a four-year project to collect and preserve the memories of former pupils, complementing the Foundling Hospital’s past and present archives.
The exhibition is divided into five themes: Early Life, School Life, Into the World, Search for Birth Families and Reflections, and each one is illustrated with memories and detailed extracts from the foundlings’ personal stories. The Hospital’s former pupils – the youngest is 68 and the oldest 98 – paint a remarkably vivid picture of their lives and times. These unique children were given up for care at birth and spent the first five years of their lives with foster mothers, before starting their education in the care of the Hospital. At the age of 15, they then went into the outside world – often either joining the forces, (for boys) or going into service (for girls).
Foundling Voices is housed in the museum’s temporary exhibition gallery and opens on Thursday April 14th. It runs until October 30th and is open Tuesday to Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Entry to the exhibition is free, although there is a charge for the Museum’s permanent displays of £7.50 for adults, £5.00 for concessions, children are free. For more information, see www.foundlingmuseum.org.uk
