Threads of Feeling -

Today I visited the Foundling Museum near Russel Square in order to research a potential case study for my dissertation. It is a museum that exhibits the history of the Foundling Hospital and the tragic stories of pverty stricken parents who had to give up their babies in the 17th century. Being someone who considers themself somewhat of an 'emotional retard' and often, i've been told, not being able to see the serious side of things, I consider today a new day. It is impossible to think of words that could have so clearly and visually described the love between a mother and child as this exhibition. That love not during their childhood, but at the point that mothers had to make the painstaking decision to give up their tiny babies. Before I even entered the museum I had seen images and read text of the heart renching stories of the foundling babies. Even I felt myself well up at the thought of how they coped with this separation, given that once left the infant mortality rate was as high as knowing that two thirds of the babies would die.

Having discussed possible options with Emmanuelle it was suggested that the story of The Foundling  Babies may be very fitting to my subject. To re-cap I am discussing the links between clothing and relationships in families. I am focusing on anthropological theories of the gift, and what makes heirlooms and items of clothing more than just a piece of cloth to an individual. The Foundling Story is a heartfelt and moving one. I gained a great insight into the tragedy that many families faced in the 17th Century when poverty forced them to give up their children. The only 'token' left with the anonymous child that linked them back to their parents was often a piece of fabric or an item of clothing. The foundling museum has hosted a temporary exhibition displaying many of the tokens since October, and luckily I got to see this collection just three days before it closed! See the website here for more information.

Two examples of the fabric tokens, notice the embroidered flower indicating the chance of a new life, and the hearts showing the universal symbol of love. Mothers would clearly try to make their fabric as identifiable as possible, in the small hope that one day, if they were in a position to re-claim their child, that they would know which one belonged to them.