The Fallen Women
The mental image of a Victorian orphan child is a heartbreaking one. Born illegitimately at a time when respectability, ‘purity’ and high morals prevailed, the mothers of these orphans would have surely felt that they had little choice but to petition for their babies to be taken in by the then Foundling Hospital.
Today The Foundling Museum is dedicated to honouring the lives and histories of these often tragic adoptions. The current exhibition, The Fallen Women focuses not on the orphans specifically, but their mothers. Often forced into homelessness, prostitution and suicide, their stories deserve to be heard. These now almost anonymous women speak so clearly to us today, not only of prejudices and loss but of the advances we as a society have made towards a fairer treatment of women. Catch it before it ends.
The Fallen Women is on until 3 January
www.foundlingmuseum.org.uk
Today The Foundling Museum is dedicated to honouring the lives and histories of these often tragic adoptions. The current exhibition, The Fallen Women focuses not on the orphans specifically, but their mothers. Often forced into homelessness, prostitution and suicide, their stories deserve to be heard. These now almost anonymous women speak so clearly to us today, not only of prejudices and loss but of the advances we as a society have made towards a fairer treatment of women. Catch it before it ends.
The Fallen Women is on until 3 January
www.foundlingmuseum.org.uk
2 comments
This is so sad that this happened to these mothers and children. God loves us all, no matter our problems in life, as we all have sinned. At that time in history, we should have embraced these women, not put them out in the street. Who were we to put judgement on these women.
On another note, I love the artwork above.
Such a similar situation obtains now in South Africa that even the same mechanism is used. A safety cupboard with a bell, in an outside wall, that unwanted babies can be put into to be recovered from inside the building. This was instituted to prevent girls abandoning newborns in the open. The traditional extended family has broken down due to urbanisation and to the depredations of AIDS, so that babies often cannot be absorbed by relatives. And teenage pregnancies are common. Sex education is ‘untraditional’ (but so are sugar daddies) which doesn’t help. It was interesting to see the persistence of an answer to a social ill.