London’s Forgotten Children: Thomas Coram and the Foundling Hospital

Synopsis

Video recording of a lecture held on 7 March 2012 in the series ‘The Lost Hospitals of London’ organised by Gresham College. (53 minutes)

In 1739, Captain Thomas Coram was dismayed at the sight of children dying on the dung heaps of London. These children, mostly foundlings and orphans, were products of a poverty-stricken society where the attitude towards babies born outside of wedlock meant a life of rejection and inferiority. After 17 years of campaigning, Coram managed to persuade sufficient ‘persons of quality and distinction’ to support his petition to the King to grant a Royal Charter for the building of the Foundling Hospital in Bloomsbury. Over the next two hundred years, thousands of children were brought to the Foundling Hospital by mothers who were unable to look after their illegitimate children. There they were provided with excellent health care and education fit for their station in life before apprenticing the boys to learn a trade and the girls to domestic service. In this lecture Dame Gillian Pugh, former chief executive of Coram, offers a fascinating history of the first children’s charity and charts the rise of this incredible institution. It examines the attitude towards foundlings as illegitimate children over the years and brings us up to date on the innovative work of the charity today, now known simply as Coram.

Language

English

Country

Great Britain

Year of release

2012

Year of production

2012

Documentation

PDF transcript available on the website

Subjects

History; Social welfare

Keywords

charities; child welfare; history of medicine; orphans; social history; Coram, Thomas; foundlings

Online availability

URI

http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/london%E2%80%99s-forgotten-children-thomas-coram-and-the-foundling-hospital

Price

free

Delivery

Streamed/Download

Credits

Contributor

Gillian Pugh

Distributor

Name

Gresham College

Email

enquiries@gresham.ac.uk

Web

http://www.gresham.ac.uk/ External site opens in new window

Phone

020 7831 0575

Fax

020 7831 5208

Address

Barnard’s Inn Hall
Holborn
London EC1N 2HH