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Foundling Museum
London
Another of London's weird and still wonderful museums and historical sites, the Foundling Museum in Bloomsbury tells the story of the Foundling Hospital, and of its famous founders and governors: the campaigning philanthropist Thomas Coram, the artist William Hogarth and the composer George Frideric Handel. Captain Thomas Coram was horrified by the spectacle of poverty on London's streets and he spent the last part of his life establishing a refuge for abandoned children- the Foundling Hospital was Britain's original home for abandoned children and London's first ever public art gallery.
The Foundling Collection deals primarily with the history of the Foundling Hospital between its foundation in 1739 and its closure in 1954.This museum, started in 1998, traces the history of this city's first children's charity, and includes many significant and personal mementoes stories and insights into London's poverty and attitude towards children. Overall, the museum tells the story of the 27,000 children who passed through this Hospital.
Started as a home for some of London's poorest and most vulnerable, this Musuem contains a significant collection of works by early supporters and some of the most noted artists of the eighteenth century. These include Gainsborough and Reynolds, and their works are displayed alongside original interiors. The Museum's top floor contains the Gerald Coke Handel Collection, one of the most important collections of objects relating to the famous composer, who himself was a governor of this hospital.
