An Introduction to the Tokens at the Foundling Museum

When the Foundling Hospital - or, to use its proper name, "The Hospital for the Education and Maintenance of Exposed and Deserted Young Children' - opened in 1741, it was recorded that a note should be made of any particular writing' or 'peculiar thing' that was left with a child, as an identifier in case the child was later claimed.

Collectively, these writings and objects, the majority left between 1741 and 1760, are known as the TOKENS. A selection of them has been on show, first at the Hospital and now at the Foundling Museum, for a long time - so long, in fact, that their connections with the children for whom they were left have been lost. However, the Foundling Museum has been able to re-establish the links in a number of cases, as you can discover in this booklet.