Feeding the 400
This was a
beautifully displayed exhibition and became a history of food in general as
well as at the Foundling Hospital. There was good use of art works to
illustrate points as well as great archive material. It looked at the social
side of food with the idea of what and how the foundling ate emphasising their
place in society.
There were also
interesting displays on feeding infants and the research the hospital did.
Originally they had fed babies on bread soaked in milk but they realised there
was a high death rate so they switched to using paid wet nurses. I did find it
heart-breaking though that a baby would we with a wet nurse until about he age
of 3 or 4 by which time the child and nurse must have bonded. How hard it must
have been for both of them when the child returned to the hospital and
institutional life.
I learned some
things I’d never thought about, like the fact until the 1860s and the growth in
the railways all the milk for London came from urban producers mainly in Mile
End, Hackney and Islington.
I loved the
inclusion of a sound installation by Steve Urquhart called “Foundling Family
Lunch” which added the haunting sounds of children filing into a meal, saying
grace and eating quietly. Also the wonderful blinds with a large vegetable
designs on them. A nice touch!
Closes on 8
January 2017
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