Feeding the 400

Poignant exhibition at the Foundling Museum looking at how the institution fed the children in its care.

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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