FOUNDLING CHILDREN: EXPLORING LIVED EXPERIENCES

London Metropolitan Archives | 40 Northampton Road | EC1R 0HB London | United Kingdom

Friday, 5 October 2018 from 10:00 to 16:30

£10  Booking essential  https://foundlinglivedexperience.eventbrite.co.uk

 

This one-day conference will explore Foundling children’s history with an emphasis on the themes of health, welfare and well-being.

 

Funded by the Wellcome Trust.

 

PROGRAMME

 

London Metropolitan Archives' project overview. What did the collections work reveal about lived experience

 

Eighteenth Century ‘Idiot’ Children of the London Foundling Hospital    Speaker: Thomas Aird, Foundling Museum

On November 17th 1770 the Foundling Hospital Governors requested that a list be made of children ‘who by reason of blindness, lameness or other infirmities may not be fit to put out to apprentice’. This request resulted in the first of several lists compiled during this period which identified children with a range of disabilities potentially impacting upon their ability to be apprenticed and consequently released from the care of the Hospital.

 

In 1773 all of the children were returned to the main Hospital in London and a campaignbegan which aimed to find useful employment for these children, hence ‘useful to themselves’.

Using a case study approach it is possible to follow some of these children through to adulthood and gain some insight into how the Foundling Hospital governors addressed the challenges for a group of children with a range of learning and behavioural difficulties.

 

“… so that the Air be always sweet” Speaker: Janette Bright

Traditionally historians looking at the London Foundling Hospital have considered it as a place for understanding illegitimacy, poverty and the nurturing of infants. Equally they may be interested in it as a site for viewing art and listening to music. Images suggest a place of order and calm where the wealthy came to help the poor. In reality the institution was often a site of chaos and, despite a preoccupation with cleanliness, far from fragrant.

 

In 1763, the Foundling Hospital treasurer informed its governors that a method had been invented and tested, to remove foul air and bad smells from the infirmaries. Believing that such a procedure would prevent illness, it was considered that not only would this be of benefit to the foundling children but to other institutions too. The archives suggest that such measures were also contemplated as improving the lives of the governors, not just in the Hospital but in their social lives as well.

By reviewing the Hospital archives and using a single case study, it will be argued that this approach can provide us a greater understanding of how the governors constantly strived to improve the well-being of the children under their care.

 

Document Viewing: A chance to see original materials from the Foundling collection

 

Take Two Girls, or, How to Create the Perfect Wife  Speaker: Wendy Moore, Journalist and Author

In 1769 a wealthy bachelor named Thomas Day, aged 21, was allowed to take two girls, Ann Kingston and Dorcas Car away from the Foundling Hospitals in Shrewsbury and London. He took them to a secret location in London and changed their names to Sabrina and Lucretia. They then moved to France where Day educated them for the next six months.

Day had chosen the two girls in order to conduct a remarkable social experiment. Unable to find the woman of his dreams in Georgian society, he had decided to educate them both and then choose the best candidate to become his wife. Inevitably Day’s experiment went badly, often comically, wrong. Arguably it was Sabrina’s upbringing under the tough but paternalistic Foundling Hospital system which enable her to survive Day’s attempts at social engineering.

 

A Consideration of the Emotional and Psychological Impact of Growing up in the Foundling Hospital

Speakers: Val Molloy, Social Worker and Ruth Miller former pupil of the Foundling Hospital, Honorary Secretary of the Old Coram Association, and a current Governor at Coram. Additional speaker to be confirmed

 

This presentation will include:

- an introduction from a social worker describing the way in which the archive has been used to address issues of emotional wellbeing linked to separation and loss of identity;

- the reflections of a former pupil on life as a child in the Hospital’s care and its impact on adult life;

- the testimony of a recent care leaver as a way of exploring what has changed in recent years and which themes prove to be enduring.

 

Life story is an important issue for those who do not have it easily at their disposal. It influences identity – this presentation will address how lived experience has served to inform policy and practice today and the work still to be done. Coram is unique in having provided services continuously since inception in 1739.

 

Final discussion and close