A unique feature of the Foundling Museum is our poignant collection of tokens; small objects left by mothers when their child was admitted to the Foundling Hospital between the 1740s and 1760s. 

Established in 1739, the hospital was a charitable institution for abandoned children, and mothers who could not care for their child often left them in the care of the hospital, accompanied by a small token. These tokens ranged from coins and pieces of fabric to jewellery or medallions and were used as a form of identification - the idea was that if a mother were ever able to return and reclaim her child, the token would serve as proof of her identity. 

Children were renamed on admission, so the token would help prove their relationship.  There are around 400 tokens in the collection, with many thousands more paper and textile ones in the London Archives, giving us extraordinary glimpses into eighteenth-century society and individual lives. 

Example Token: Thimble, mid-eighteenth century 

The thimble has been identified as belonging to a boy admitted in 1759 and renamed John Johnson. A note was left with the token, but it is attached to its billet and so tightly folded that it is only possible to see that the baby’s original name was Joseph and he was Irish. The billet states that a thimble was left with the child. There is also some pale blue ribbon and green threads with the billet, which suggests that the thimble may have been tied to the ribbon with the thread and the ribbon attached to the child for his journey to the Hospital.