Britain’s first home for abandoned children and London’s first public art gallery, the Foundling Museum reveals the stories of the Foundling Hospital’s founder Thomas Coram, the artist William Hogarth and composer George Frideric Handel. The Foundling Hospital was established in 1739 by Royal Charter after a seventeen year campaign by Sir Thomas Coram who was determined to set up an institution dedicated to the care and education of ‘foundlings’, the illegitimate children he saw abandoned on London’s streets. The museum collection includes the ‘foundling tokens’, everyday objects such as a coin or button, that were pinned by mothers to their baby’s clothes as they were left in the Hospital’s care. The Hospital’s Art Collection began in 1740, when William Hogarth donated the first painting, and continued to grow as many of the leading artists of the time donated further artworks. In 1750, Composer George Frideric Handel began giving annual benefit performance of his Messiah, and the museum’s Gerald Coke Handel Collection is the largest privately held collection of Handel material. The Foundling Museum opened in 2004, and it houses significant collections of eighteenth-century art, interiors, social history and music.
- The Foundling Museum
- 40 Brunswick Square, London WC1N 1AZ
- www.foundlingmuseum.org.uk
- Underground: Russel Square