The Foundling Museum, along with The Art Fund, has launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise the profile of the influential women in their history whose pioneering actions have gone unrecognised for nearly 300 years.
Image: A page from Thomas Coram’s notebook with the signatures of the 21 ladies. Courtesy of The Foundling Museum.
Inspired by the success of fundraising for the Fallen Woman exhibition in 2015, curated by Birkbeck’s Professor Lynda Nead, the Foundling Museum wants to raise money to reveal the unsung women, so far hidden from history, who helped make it possible for the Foundling Hospital to look after the thousands of children left in their care.
The Foundling Museum explores the history of the Foundling Hospital, the UK’s first children’s charity and first public art gallery. The museum aims to inspire everyone to make a positive contribution to society, by celebrating the power of individuals and the arts to change lives.
The Fallen Woman exhibition raised £25,000 through the Art Fund’s crowdfunding campaign, Art Happens. The exhibition revealed a world where women were forced to make harsh choices to keep their babies alive and reverse their ill-fortune. It juxtaposed paintings of ‘fallen’ women by major artists of the day, with moving petitions from mothers applying to the Foundling Hospital to take in their babies.
Celebrating the centenary of female suffrage this year, curators at The Foundling Museum have located portraits currently scattered across the UK, of 21 women who were instrumental in establishing the Foundling Hospital.
If fundraising is successful and The Foundling Museum hit their target of £20,000, they will be able to replace all of the portraits of male governors in the Picture Gallery with the 21 ‘ladies of quality and distinction’ who put their name to Thomas Coram’s very first petition to the King to set up the Hospital.
The exhibition will take place in the Autumn if they are able to raise enough money by Monday 5 March.
