Empire and Charity: Ideological Foundations of the London Foundling Hospital
Disciplines
Cultural History | European History | Political History | Social History
Abstract (300 words maximum)
The London Foundling Hospital received its charter in 1739 after seventeen years of diligent work on the part of its founder, Thomas Coram. Why did Thomas Coram find success in this unprecedented endeavor? Itself a home for children of impoverished women, the hospital was meant as an ameliorative measure to address the increasingly visible poverty in the heart of Britain’s Empire. The outpouring of humanitarian spirit that occurred during the mid to late 18th century has often been linked with the surge in commercialism and developing culture of sentimentality. This paper will argue that the London Foundling Hospital represented an expression of ever-increasing anxieties regarding the unfamiliar pressures of Britain’s rapidly expanding Empire. These anxieties were threefold. Socially, the Foundling Hospital addressed the obvious symptoms of growing class divides brought on by commercialism and provided some semblance of progress towards a civil society. Politically, the institution aligned with Patriot subversives intent on exposing the corruption of the Walpole regime. And culturally, it concretized the plight of the poor who had been thrust into the cultural consciousness by the engravings of William Hogarth. This research examines the London Foundling Hospital archives, a popular satirical publication known as the Foundling Hospital for Wit, and the public response to this new charity to create a narrative explaining why the London Foundling Hospital developed in the context of mid-18th century Great Britain.
Academic department under which the project should be listed
RCHSS - History & Philosophy
Primary Investigator (PI) Name
Dr. Amy Dunagin
Empire and Charity: Ideological Foundations of the London Foundling Hospital
The London Foundling Hospital received its charter in 1739 after seventeen years of diligent work on the part of its founder, Thomas Coram. Why did Thomas Coram find success in this unprecedented endeavor? Itself a home for children of impoverished women, the hospital was meant as an ameliorative measure to address the increasingly visible poverty in the heart of Britain’s Empire. The outpouring of humanitarian spirit that occurred during the mid to late 18th century has often been linked with the surge in commercialism and developing culture of sentimentality. This paper will argue that the London Foundling Hospital represented an expression of ever-increasing anxieties regarding the unfamiliar pressures of Britain’s rapidly expanding Empire. These anxieties were threefold. Socially, the Foundling Hospital addressed the obvious symptoms of growing class divides brought on by commercialism and provided some semblance of progress towards a civil society. Politically, the institution aligned with Patriot subversives intent on exposing the corruption of the Walpole regime. And culturally, it concretized the plight of the poor who had been thrust into the cultural consciousness by the engravings of William Hogarth. This research examines the London Foundling Hospital archives, a popular satirical publication known as the Foundling Hospital for Wit, and the public response to this new charity to create a narrative explaining why the London Foundling Hospital developed in the context of mid-18th century Great Britain.