The Foundling Museum
Last week a few of us (Garden Museum volunteers) were invited to visit the Foundling Museum, a place that has been on one of my "to visit" lists for quite a while.
The Foundling Hospital (which continues today as the children's charity Coram) was established in 1739 by the philanthropist Captain Thomas Coram, as "a hospital for the maintenance and education of exposed and deserted young children". In the early 1720's Captain Thomas Coram, having run a successful ship building business in Massachusetts, had returned to his native England and was appalled by the sight of all themany babies and young children abandoned on London's streets. Lacking the wealth, aristocratic upbringing and connections he had to campaign for 17 years before he received a Royal Charter in 1739 to establish his hospital. Luckily, the artist William Hogarth and the composer George Frideric Handel joined him in his vision, and in doing so created London's first public art gallery and set the template for the way the arts would come to support charities through the following years. Handel donate proceeds from a concert performance of the Messiah, which at the time was a huge amount, he also donated the manuscript of the Halleluja Chorus. The museum also holds the world's largest private collection of Handel material.
The current museum was built on the site of the old hospital which was demolished in the 1920's, there is also a modern building holding the headquarters offices of the charity, and there is a public children's play area and park called Coram's Fields, where admission is refused to adults unless accompanied by a child.
Amongst the most poignant of the displays are the petitions and "tokens" left by mothers with their babies as a means of indentification in the hopes that they might one day return to claim their children. Petitions had to be written and presented to the board of governors, who would then decide which of the cases were most deserved....only a certain number of infants could be taken in at one time. Some where quite heart-breaking. The "tokens" were anything from items of jewelry (or bits of it) to coins and charms. One of them was, interestingly, a season token for the Vauxhall Gardens which at the time would have been worth quite a lot - perhaps the mother may have been an actress, or a person of high standing but fallen on hard times.... who will ever know......
An image of the hospital as it was.....
A statue of Thomas Coram, and one of the goats in the children's park...
and "us" !
In the temporary exhibition space there is at present "The Triumph of Pleasure - Vauxhall Gardens - 1729-1786" and very interesting it is too...... and it was a tie-in with our last exhibition on 300 years of garden visiting.
An Anonyous Poem c.1780 took my fancy.....
Each Profession, ev'ry trade
Here enjoy refreshing shade,
Empty is the cobbler's stall,
He's gone with tinker to Vauxhall,
Here they drink, and there they cram
Chicken, pasty, beef and ham,
Women squeak and men drunk fall,
Sweet enjoyment of Vauxhall.
....and an old illustration of the gardens.....
The Foundling Hospital (which continues today as the children's charity Coram) was established in 1739 by the philanthropist Captain Thomas Coram, as "a hospital for the maintenance and education of exposed and deserted young children". In the early 1720's Captain Thomas Coram, having run a successful ship building business in Massachusetts, had returned to his native England and was appalled by the sight of all themany babies and young children abandoned on London's streets. Lacking the wealth, aristocratic upbringing and connections he had to campaign for 17 years before he received a Royal Charter in 1739 to establish his hospital. Luckily, the artist William Hogarth and the composer George Frideric Handel joined him in his vision, and in doing so created London's first public art gallery and set the template for the way the arts would come to support charities through the following years. Handel donate proceeds from a concert performance of the Messiah, which at the time was a huge amount, he also donated the manuscript of the Halleluja Chorus. The museum also holds the world's largest private collection of Handel material.
The current museum was built on the site of the old hospital which was demolished in the 1920's, there is also a modern building holding the headquarters offices of the charity, and there is a public children's play area and park called Coram's Fields, where admission is refused to adults unless accompanied by a child.
Amongst the most poignant of the displays are the petitions and "tokens" left by mothers with their babies as a means of indentification in the hopes that they might one day return to claim their children. Petitions had to be written and presented to the board of governors, who would then decide which of the cases were most deserved....only a certain number of infants could be taken in at one time. Some where quite heart-breaking. The "tokens" were anything from items of jewelry (or bits of it) to coins and charms. One of them was, interestingly, a season token for the Vauxhall Gardens which at the time would have been worth quite a lot - perhaps the mother may have been an actress, or a person of high standing but fallen on hard times.... who will ever know......
An image of the hospital as it was.....
A statue of Thomas Coram, and one of the goats in the children's park...
and "us" !
In the temporary exhibition space there is at present "The Triumph of Pleasure - Vauxhall Gardens - 1729-1786" and very interesting it is too...... and it was a tie-in with our last exhibition on 300 years of garden visiting.
An Anonyous Poem c.1780 took my fancy.....
Each Profession, ev'ry trade
Here enjoy refreshing shade,
Empty is the cobbler's stall,
He's gone with tinker to Vauxhall,
Here they drink, and there they cram
Chicken, pasty, beef and ham,
Women squeak and men drunk fall,
Sweet enjoyment of Vauxhall.
....and an old illustration of the gardens.....