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About A Home For Foundlings
Product Description Nominated for the 2005 Norma Fleck Award Thousands of mothers carried their babies to the gates of the Foundling Hospital desperate to save them from the cruel streets of eighteenth-century London. Each baby was left with a personal “token” – identification if a repentant mother ever returned to reclaim her child. Captain Thomas Coram, himself childless, was inspired by the sight of babies abandoned on dung heaps to petition the king for support in building a home for England’s poorest children. Coram’s vision saved countless children’s lives. A Home for Foundlings describes the hospital Captain Coram founded, the luminaries involved – including Handel, Hogarth, and Dickens – and the daily lives of the foundlings themselves. Full of archival photos and materials, and published in cooperation with the newly established Foundling Museum in London and Lord Cultural Resources, A Home for Foundlings is a fascinating, heartbreaking, and timely book. Author Marthe Jocelyn’s text has particular resonance: her grandfather, Arthur Jocelyn, was raised in the Foundling Hospital. From School Library Journal Grade 5 Up–Inspired by a desire to learn about her grandfather's childhood in an English orphanage, Jocelyn unearthed the history of London's Foundling Hospital for the Maintenance and Education of Exposed and Deserted Young Children. Founded in 1739 by retired shipbuilder Thomas Coram, the institution took in babies whose desperate mothers might otherwise have abandoned them and trained them to be useful citizens who would serve in the British military or work as domestic servants. Among the hospital's famous benefactors were the artist William Hogarth and the composer George Frideric Handel, who raised enormous amounts of money by performing the Messiah there year after year. Because of the excellent education they received, many of the children went on to have musical careers. In its more than 210 years of operation, the facility cared for approximately 27,000 children. After World War II, a change in the philosophy resulted in the orphans being placed in foster families, and the Hospital closed in 1953. Black-and-white reproductions of early admission documents and ledgers as well as period photographs and engravings appear throughout. This is a useful resource for large collections or those with a particular emphasis on the history of childhood or agencies serving children. –Ginny Gustin, Sonoma County Library System, Santa Rosa, CA Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From Booklist Gr. 7-10. Details create drama in this history of Foundling Hospital, a London orphanage that took in more than 27,000 children from the time it was established in the eighteenth century as a home for abandoned babies. Part of the Lord Museum series, the book brings childhood poverty close through short biographies of orphans (including Jocelyn's own grandfather) and accounts of famous benefactors--among them, Handel and Dickens. The detailed source notes are part of the story. Lots of photographs, archival sketches, prints, and official documents relay the facts of daily life: what the orphans wore and ate, the horrifying abuse they suffered, the kindness they received. As Jocelyn notes, there's enduring appeal in orphan stories, from Oliver Twist to Harry Potter. Hazel Rochman Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved Review “A heartbreaking book… extensively researched… presents information in a way that is respectful of the people and the situation… story and photos convey a fascinating part of history… Jocelyn writes feelingly without any sentimentality.” -Jury Comment (Norma Fleck Award) From the Back Cover Thousands of mothers carried their babies to the gates of the Foundling Hospital desperate to save them from the cruel streets of eighteenth-century London. Each baby was left with a personal "token" - identification if a repe
