Conference Programme
The conference will be held virtually on the 23rd and 24th of June 2023.
By registering through this form, you will be provided with the Zoom links for all two days of sessions.
Scroll down to see the 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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Day 2, Saturday, June 24, 2023
12.30-12.35 BST Welcome to Day Two and Housekeeping - Hannah Dennett
12:35 – 14:05 Panel 1: Health, Care, and Medicine - Chair: Janette Bright
Richard Pusey, Independent Researcher
Dr. Richard Mead and Smallpox Inoculation
Claire M. Phillips, The Open University
Medical Care in the Foundling Hospital in the 18th Century
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Beck Price, Coram
Disabled Lives at the Foundling Hospital
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14:05-14:15 Break
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14:15 – 15:15 Panel 2: The Arts at the Hospital - Chair: Roy Sloan
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Joy Levene, Independent Researcher
Hogarth and the Children
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John Caldicott, Independent Researcher
Music and Drama at the Foundling Hospital
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15:15-15:25 Break
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15:25-16:25 Panel 3: Individual Experiences at the LFH Chair: Virginia Grimaldi
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Hannah Dennett, University of Warwick
Fanny Kenyon: the Life of a Black Foundling in the Long 18th Century
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Dr. Josie Pearse, Independent Researcher and Rose Canning, University of Southampton
What Hannah did next
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16:25 – 16:35 Break
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16:35 – 17:50 Keynote Speaker - Chair: Roberta Zanasi
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Jessica A. Sheetz-Nguyen, Ph.D. , University of Maryland
Pulling the Threads of Scholarship in the Foundling Hospital Archives
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17:50-18:00 Closing Remarks
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