{"id":4301,"date":"2022-04-13T13:28:36","date_gmt":"2022-04-13T18:28:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/?p=4301"},"modified":"2022-04-13T13:28:40","modified_gmt":"2022-04-13T18:28:40","slug":"lost-and-foundling-dickens-house-museum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/?p=4301","title":{"rendered":"Lost and Foundling, Dickens House Museum"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I\u2019m not gonna lie, the foundling museum hits different when you were adopted at nine months old. The Foundling Museum affected me more than I thought it was going to. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The exhibits were through a door surrounded by a roster of famous orphans and foundlings, historical and fictional. My people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Tokens were mandatory. Those surrendering children had to leave something if only a hazelnut shell or a scrap of paper from a Vauxhall playbill, but some are wrenchingly personal.
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Ledgers documented each baby received. This one, for Boy #8338 admitted May 1758, included his name embroidered on a ribbon and a poem on a scrap of paper. This one left me feeling hollowed out.
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‘Go gentle babe! Thy future hours be spent
In virtuous purity and calm content <\/em>
Life’s sunshine bless thee: and no anxious care<\/em>
Sit on thy brow and drain the falling tear <\/em>
Thy countrys grateful servant may’st thou prove
And all thy life be happiness and love’<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

His name was Philip Holland, and he was later reclaimed by his father.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Along with the objects and mementos, an oral history (by former clients? Inmates? Survivors?) ran continuously in an alcove that also displayed one of these iron cots.
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Institutional life may be better than death by starvation and exposure, but it still sounded pretty grim.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The abandoned and surrendered infants were placed in foster homes until they were five and then brought into the highly regimented school setting. “It prepares you for life in the military,” was the most positive thing I heard, and the rest sounded bleak as hell. Canings and mandatory silence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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TIL: I did not know the composer Handel and artist Hogarth were ardent supporters. Hogarth designed the institution’s logo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Handel wrote music for them and held fundraising concerts, including one of his Messiah. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Upstairs musicians were practicing for an evening performance. The rich and full sound filled the room and spilled down the staircase. It was glorious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n