foundlings

 
this is so crushingly sad, my heart hurts...these pieces of ribbon and fabric were left by mothers along with a surrendered child in hopes that she could one day reclaim him or her in better circumstances.  between 1741-1760 the London Foundling Hospital cared for 16,000 children, sadly most of them were never reclaimed and many of them died. the hospital believed that the children's best chance at a new life would be to wipe away their previous existence, giving them new names, thus the system was put in place of cloth to match a child. there is a wonderful article here with further details....via the jealous curator 

Comments

[Cat marple]

This is very sad and beautiful.Thanks