ccompaning Di this weekend, we went to see Threads of Feeling- an exhibition that is showcasing fabrics never shown before to illustrate the moment of parting as mothers left their babies at the original Foundling Hospital, which continues today as the children’s charity Coram.
In the cases of more than 4,000 babies left between 1741 and 1760, a small object or token, usually a piece of fabric, was kept as an identifying record. The fabric was either provided by the mother or cut from the child’s clothing by the hospital's nurses. Attached to registration forms and bound up into ledgers, these pieces of fabric form the largest collection of everyday textiles surviving in Britain from the 18th Century.
The pictures above are rom those ledgers....not a dry eye at the exhibition!
riday was an inspiration day and so as the toy museum at Bethnal Green is one of my favorites I took the camera up there for research....There was the most wonderful exhibition of the artwork of Judith Kerr who wrote 'When Hitler stole pink rabbit' and 'When the tiger came to tea'....There was a huge No Photography sign up but could nt resist as her paintings were so much more beautiful than than the printed versions, and while my hurried amateur snaps dont do her artwork justice, I had to share them with you all!
