Foundling Museum

🎨 Explore compelling stories of love, loss and care through art and objects. 👀 Visit us Tuesday-Sunday. We’re free for 21 & under.

[Foundling Museum @FoundlingMuseum]

If you love our stories and collection, and want to stay up to date on what's on at the Museum, follow us on Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn. We're @FoundlingMuseum everywhere.

We will only be sharing important updates on X from now on, so make sure you don't miss out!

[Foundling Museum @FoundlingMuseum]

Our current exhibition, A Grand Chorus: The Power of Music, closes on Sunday 31 May 🎵

🎟️Grab your ticket now: https://t.co/9BRvkmvC98

[Foundling Museum @FoundlingMuseum]

Our autumn exhibition, A Grand Chorus: The Power of Music, opens today 📢

Explore the life-affirming power of collective song through the legacy Handel's 'Hallelujah Chorus' and 300 years of archival, visual, and aural history.

Visit us now: https://t.co/0VJ7aeIK9a

[Foundling Museum @FoundlingMuseum]

Dive into the magic of the festive season with beloved children's author @MichaelRosenYes ✨

Join us this Saturday for a day of festive rhymes read by Michael from classics like Christmas Tree Lights and Chocolate Cake.

🎟️Book your spot before they go: https://t.co/IEdcA8P1Ub

[Foundling Museum @FoundlingMuseum]

🎨'A choir of orphan girls', c. 1900, by Thérèse Schwartze⁠

📸Still from Mikhail Karikis We are Together Because 2025 at Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian Photographer Pedro Pina⁠

[Foundling Museum @FoundlingMuseum]

Our autumn exhibition, A Grand Chorus: The Power of Music, opens today 📢

Explore the life-affirming power of collective song through the legacy Handel's 'Hallelujah Chorus' and 300 years of archival, visual, and aural history.

Visit us now: https://t.co/0VJ7aeIK9a

[School of Booze @SchoolofBooze]

I'm having the absolute joy of hosting a couple of events (beer & gin) for London's @foundlingmuseum in Bloomsbury This is the room in which they happen.

I've already hosted the beer event and the gin tasting event is on June 27th 2025. Details here:

https://t.co/cCasDN5t2w

[Foundling Museum @FoundlingMuseum]

In the early 2000s, Richard saw the letters his mother had sent to the Hospital for the first time.

"And out all these letters came. Letters, about nearly 50, I think. Well, it's a shame that I learnt so late about how good my mother was."

[Foundling Museum @FoundlingMuseum]

For our final Women's History Month post, we're spotlighting one woman who made a heartbreaking choice for the sake of her baby.

[Foundling Museum @FoundlingMuseum]

"When I left, that was the last I saw of my mother, and unfortunately she was crying.

I was too young. Too young and foolish. Didn't even think of it. Not even used to it. [...] To me it was just - [after life at the Hospital] - it meant absolutely nothing."

[Foundling Museum @FoundlingMuseum]

This token was left with a child in May 1748. Her birth name is unknown, but she was christened Roberta Corbett by the Hospital.

Roberta was claimed later that same year, by Bridget and John Sinnott - her parents.

[Foundling Museum @FoundlingMuseum]

This token is recorded in Foundling Hospital records as a ‘silver tassel with ditto spangles’. It’s about 3 inches wide, and constructed of spangles – sequins – carefully affixed to a very fine wire ✨

[Foundling Museum @FoundlingMuseum]

Though dull now, this ornament would have sparkled when it was created. It’s been damaged and tarnished over time so it’s hard to discern the original form, but now, by accident, it almost resembles an angel.

[Foundling Museum @FoundlingMuseum]

Nonetheless, Brownlow's work shows an energetic, socially conscious artist, and can be seen throughout the Foundling Museum today.

[Foundling Museum @FoundlingMuseum]

For this week’s #WomensHistoryMonth post, we’re spotlighting the most represented female artist in our collection: Emma Brownlow 🌟

Brownlow (1832 - 1905) was best known for her depictions of life at the Foundling Hospital.

🔍 Self-portrait, c.1865

[Foundling Museum @FoundlingMuseum]

She married Donald King, a singer, in 1867, and became the primary income earner for her family. In the 1870s she appears, as many middle-class wage-earning women of her day did, to have committed herself to her family at the expense of her art.