Conference Programme

Please note – all timings are BRITISH SUMMER TIME

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Day 1 - Friday, June 23, 2023

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12:30-12.45 BST Introductions, Welcome and Housekeeping - Janette Bright

12:45 – 14:30 Panel 1: Emotional Histories - Chair: Hannah Dennett

Claudia Soares, Newcastle University

‘The Particulars of my Dear Little Boy’s Health’: Grief, Despair and Hope in the Foundling Hospital Archives in the 19th Century

Kate Gibson, University of Manchester

Fostering Foundling Children in 18th Century England

Roberta Zanasi, University of Bologna, PhD and Elina Saloranta, Visual Artist and Lecturer at University of the Arts, Helsinki

‘Will You Please tell me of my Dear Child?’

14:30-14:40 Break

14:40 – 16:10 Panel 2: Foundling Families - Chair: Virginia Grimaldi

Anthony Annakin-Smith, Independent Researcher

The Chester Branch Hospital and the Experiences of its ‘Family’ of Children

Janette Bright, Institute of Historical Research

The Role of Matrons at the LFH, 1740-1820

Roy Sloan, Independent Researcher

The Foundling Hospital as Family

16:10 – 16:20 Break

16:20-17:50 Panel 3: Delving Into the Archive - Chair: Janette Bright

Carol Harris, Social Historian, Coram

Researching the Foundling Hospital: Past, Present, and Future

Virginia Lynn Grimaldi, York University, Canada,

The Chosen Ones: From First Come, First Serve to ‘Proper Objects of Charity’ - Transformations in the Infant Admission Process at the London Foundling Hospital

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Kristen Renzi, Xavier University

Sex Talk in Victorian London: Love Letters and Illegitimate Pregnancy in the London Foundling Hospital Archives 1880-1910

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