Foundling Museum

A tiny silver token, a handwritten note or a scrap of fabric could be the only trace left behind by a child at London’s Foundling Hospital. The Foundling Museum preserves these intimate fragments alongside paintings, furniture, documents and other objects from the hospital’s extraordinary history. Founded in 1739 by Thomas Coram, the Foundling Hospital cared for abandoned infants and became closely connected with artists and musicians including William Hogarth and George Frideric Handel. Today, the collection brings together their works with the personal stories of the children, revealing a history that is both grand in scale and deeply personal.