Fate, Hope and Charity

A new exhibition at London’s Foundling Museum looks at some of the untold stories behind 18th-century tokens left at the Foundling Hospital, London's first home for abandoned children. Left with babies as a means of identification should the mother ever return to reclaim her child, these tokens often took the form of textiles, which were pinned to the admission records, as well as keys, coins, jewellery, buttons and medals.

Individual stories will be told through their tokens, together with art works and artefacts from the period. Among the stories are the circumstances surrounding the mothers' decisions to give up their babies and the lives of the foundlings to whom the tokens belonged.

Fate, Hope & Charity is on display at the Foundling Museum, London, until 19 May 2013. For more information, and to book tickets, visit the museum's website

Images © Foundling Museum