Directory of Research and Expertise

Chapters

On 25 March 1741, England’s only Foundling Hospital opened its doors in Hatton Garden, London. The institution’s aim was to prevent child abandonment and make the children useful. From that first day, a record was made of any ‘particular writing’ or ‘peculiar thing’ left with a child. These objects included ribbons, jewellery, poems, a hazelnut, buttons, coins, and medals. Known collectively as ‘foundling tokens’, these items were wrapped securely within the child’s admission record and placed in a locked iron chest. The imperative to keep the objects safe and the mother’s identity secret was central to building the institution’s reputation. Receipts made the administrative role of tokens obsolete, but they remained safely stored and hidden. Then in 1858 the Hospital’s Secretary, himself a former foundling, brought these items to the Governors’ attention as objects of curiosity. Now their hidden stories were used to promote compassion in the visitors who might support the institution financially. In this essay I will explore how these items of material culture had both administrative and emotional purpose. I will consider the ‘journey’ of some mundane items into powerful objects, and why secrecy was important irrespective of whether tokens were hidden or displayed.

Articles

The governors of the Foundling Hospital, from its foundation in 1741, set up a system of tokens to act as identifiers that would allow families to have their children returned to them. This article shows the robustness of the system the governors built around the tokens and how it worked to bring some parents and children together again. The tenacity of purpose on the parental side is a strand which runs through the stories.

Monographs

Co-authored with fellow researcher, Gillian Clark, this introductory text looks at the system of tokens now on display at the Foundling Museum.  Some of the histories behind individual tokens are also included.

This MRes thesis (IHR) looks at the London Foundling Hospital in the eighteenth century and how children left to its care were prepared for apprenticeship.  The thesis covers the period from the Hospital's establishment to the end of the eighteenth century (c.1741-1800) - though the institution continued into the mid-twentieth century.  The institution continues today as the charities Coram and the Foundling Museum, both based in London.