The London Foundling Hospital’s Textile Tokens, 1740–1770 Exhibition
Open: Tuesday – Saturday 10am – 5pm, Sunday 11am–5pm
Admission to Museum and exhibition: £7.50, concessions £5, children and Art Fund members FREE
40 Brunswick Square, London WC1N 1AZ
Until 6 March 2011
www.foundlingmuseum.org.uk // www.threadsoffeeling.com
Events Guide
All ticket prices to listed talks include the opportunity to view the exhibition for half an hour before the talks begin.
Talk: Bonds of love and affection at the London Foundling Hospital in the eighteenth-century
Tuesday 25 January, 7pm- 8.30pm
(doors 6.30pm, includes pay bar)
Tickets: £12, concessions: £10
We know almost nothing about the emotional experiences of the thousands of children left at the hospital between its opening in 1741 and the end of the eighteenth century. However, we c an tease out something of the emotional bonds that existed between these children and their parents by examining the letters and tokens left with them. Not all of these experiences were happy, but this talk by Dr Alysa Levene will illustrate how much the Foundling Hospital records can tell us about mothering, nurture and the model of childhood in the eighteenth century.
Dr Alysa Levene is a Senior Lecturer at Oxford Brookes University and author of Childcare, health and mortality at the London Foundling Hospital, 1741-1800: 'left to the mercy of the world' (Manchester University Press, 2007).
Talk: Curator’s Talk with Prof. John Styles
Wednesday 2 February, 7pm- 8.30pm
Tickets: £12, concessions: £10
Join Curator and Professor John Styles for a talk about the exhibition Threads of Feeling. The textiles on display are both beautiful and poignant, embedded in a rich social history. Each swatch reflects the life of a single infant child. But the textiles also tell us about the clothes their mothers wore, because baby clothes were usually made up from worn-out adult clothing. The fabrics reveal how working women struggled to be fashionable in the 18th Century. John will discuss the importance of the Foundling Hospital admission billets which form the largest archive of everyday textiles in Europe, if not the world.
Prof. John Styles MA (Cantab) is a historian who specializes in the history of eighteenth-century England, with a particular interest in the history of everyday things used by the common people. John is Research Professor in History at the University of Hertfordshire. He previously worked at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, where he developed the historical storyline for the British Galleries, 1500-1900. John’s most recent publication is The Dress of the People: Everyday Fashion in Eighteenth-Century England (Yale University Press, 2007).
Talk: Getting Dressed with Jenny Tiramani
Wednesday 16 February, 7pm- 8.30pm
(doors 6.30pm, includes pay bar)
Tickets: £12, concessions: £10
Getting Dressed will be a practical demonstration of dressing and undressing for women of the upper and lower classes in the second half of the eighteenth century, using reconstructed garments made in September 2010 for a production of Handel’s Orlando at Opera Lille and the Théâtre Des Champs-Élysées in Paris. Six or more layers of clothing were required to achieve the fashionable silhouette of a robe à l’anglaise, with each layer performing a different function. The talk will explore the differing properties of the various materials used to construct these layers, from fine cotton muslins to crisp, crunchy silks and corsets spectacularly stiffened with glued linens, buckram, pasteboard, bents, whalebone, wood and metal. There will be some examples of surviving textiles and garments available for the audience to inspect closely and, in some cases, touch.
Jenny Tiramani has worked as a Costume and Stage Designer since 1977. She was Associate Designer at the Theatre Royal, Stratford East and Director of Theatre Design at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, London 1997-2005, receiving the Laurence Oliver Award for Best Costume Design in 2003, for the Globe production of Twelfth Night. Productions designed this year include Orlando by Handel for Opera Lille and the Theatre des Champs-Elysees, Paris.
Workshop: Handmade Hearts
Sunday 27 February, 1pm- 4pm
Free with Museum admission
Explore the themes of needlework and hearts in this artist led workshop. A wide range of embroidery techniques can be found among the textile tokens. For mothers of Foundling babies who possessed the necessary skills, the needle offered an unrivalled means of personalising the textiles they left as tokens. Visit the exhibition and join the free workshop to stitch your own handmade heart.
Only simple stitching required but the more experienced can make something more advanced. Come on your own or as a family - all welcome.