Archive News

Thomas Coram celebrated on Blue Peter

On 18 April 2007, the story of Thomas Coram was featured on the famous BBC children's programme, Blue Peter. The programme showed how the sea captain Coram had the idea for a Foundling Hospital in London that could save children from misery and abandonment. The Museum's eighteenth century interiors, rescued from the original Foundling Hospital, acted as a marvellous background for several scenes.

New Book for Children!

A new publication produced partly as a guide to the Museum for our younger visitors.  Packed full of new pictures, paintings, photographs and fun facts – a great way for children to learn about the Foundling Hospital’s history and the contribution of one man in helping to save children.

The Foundling Museum’s book about Thomas Coram, an extraordinary man who acted when he saw things that were wrong, is excellent.  It introduces children to his life and times and to those who helped him, including Hogarth and Handel.  The mix of illustration, text and speech bubbles makes it all very accessible and a necessary part of any visit to the Museum.

Wendy Cooling

Thomas Coram, the Man who Saved Children is a must for all children you know!

£4.99 available from the Foundling Museum shop in person or by telephone on 020 7841 3600.

Flourish: 9-22 March 2007

In March 2007, the Foundling Museum hosted an exhibition by looked-after children and young people.  The exhibition echoes the story told by the Museum of the pioneering work of the Foundling Hospital which continues today with the work of Coram Family.

Flourish provides a space for young artists, all of whom are looked-after in some way, to share their art practices with the public and each other. Some are cared for by grandparents, some are residents of care homes, some have been young offenders and foster carers or are adopted. From Disney characters to graffiti, these pieces convey an involved and enthusiastic engagement with expressing what matters to them most.

The original exhibition in October 2006 was the first national exhibition to include young people diverse experience of care.

Bloomsbury Festival

The Bloomsbury Festival (20-22 October) proved to be a truly fantastic weekend full of historical and contemporary culture with music, art, dance, film, performance and children's activities. The Festival celebrated Bloomsbury's cultural activities and the opening of the restored shopping centre The Brunswick.

During the weekend more than a 1,000 festival-goers took the opportunity to attend the Museum's wonderful range of activities including a concert on the Friday, a poetry reading by Faber and Faber, a rehearsed reading of the National Theatre's Coram Boy and a recital on the Saturday. The Sunday saw a uplifting if slightly damp community sing-along of Messiah in Brunswick Square led by Foundling Museum favourites Voces8. Voces8 return to the Foundling Museum on Friday 24 November.

London's No 1 Hidden Treasure

The Foundling Museum was recently featured in Time Out as the no 1 small museum in London! London's most famous magazine picked out 50 "hidden treasures" in the Capital with the Foundling Museum topping the list. Read the full article here.

Foundling Lecture Online

The Foundling Museum recently hosted a lecture by the noted scholar of Islamic studies, Dr Gerald Hawting on Charity, Orphans and Foundlings in the Pre-Modern Islamic World. A transcript of the talk has been placed on the Untold London website, the exciting site dedicated to discovering the history of London's diverse communities. You can download the transcript here.

Foundling Museum Receives Sandford Award

The Museum recently received the Sandford Award of Heritage Education 2006 in recognition of the quality of education it delivers.

The Foundling Museum provides an excellent education service, both to schools and to informal learners of all kinds. In the short time since it opened, it has developed a relationship with families in the local community, and their supporters, which is a worthy successor to the ideals of Captain Thomas Coram, father of the Foundling Hospital.

The Foundling Museum commissions its first piece of new music

The Foundling Museum is delighted to announce it has received a grant from the PRS Foundation for New Music to commission a new work of music for the Museum. The work, a dramatic cantata entitled Sleep, baby, sleep, focuses on the difficult issue of child abuse in contemporary society. 

The composition follows the tradition established by George Frideric Handel who presented benefit concerts for the Hospital and composed the Hospital’s anthem Blessed are they that Considereth the Poor.  

The composer of the cantata, which premiered at the Foundling Museum on 12 September 2006, is John Webb, combines his experience in writing for period instruments with his work with children and young people. The libretto by B.A. Diana interweaves the texts of three nursery rhymes, Sleep, baby, sleep, Hush a bye baby and One for sorrow, two for joy, in a semi-dramatic context.

The Foundling Museum on TV!

The Foundling Museum recently featured on two different series on the BBC. Kate Adie presented a series of programmes about foundlings, where the Museum featured prominently, over the week of 8-12 May 2006. The Museum also featured on BBC2's People's Museum series as part of Museums & Galleries Month.

Handel Institute Triennial Conference

The Handel Institute triennial conference was held at the Foundling Museum on 26–27 November 2005 and was a great success. The theme of the conference was the interpretation of Handel’s music in performance and the conference covered a wide range of topics on this subject, from Handel’s own performances to those of the present day. Speakers included Graydon Beeks, Donald Burrows, Tim Day, Anthony Hicks, Peter Holman, David Hurley, Neil Jenkins, Richard King, Annette Landgraf, Konstanze Musketa, Michael Pacholke, Andrew Parrott, Graham Pont and John Roberts.

Camden Volunteering Organisation of the Year Awards 2005

The Foundling Museum was delighted to host the Camden Volunteer Bureau's Volunteering Organisation of the Year Awards ceremony, held on Tuesday 27 September 2005. These Awards celebrate the essential part that volunteers play in many charitable and community organisations in Camden.

The Foundling Museum's volunteer programme was recognised when the Museum was awarded runner-up in the Category for Outstanding Good Practice in the Recognition & Valuing of Volunteers.