Welcome to our October newsletter.
Thanks for joining us for our transcribathon this month.
To ensure emails from us don’t go into your Spam folder, add VoicesThroughTime@Coram.org.uk to your safe sender list.
Have you received our welcome email? Signed up on Zooniverse? See our welcome information below.
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Welcome information
Queries: Write your question in Talk
Our team is part-time.
We will always get back to your question as soon as we can.
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All about the project
Volunteer hub for transcribers
Would you like to stay in touch?
Tell us your username here
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This month
1,079 records pages completed
3,237 pages transcribed
1,209 Talk comments
186 people transcribing
Each page is completed once it has been transcribed three separate times. It's then compiled together into a final transcription, to ensure best quality.
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Transcribathon number 2:
A tonne of transcriptions typed
By the end of the day on Friday 1 October we were amazed to see that a staggering 700 pages of records had been transcribed for our Autumn Transcribathon. With transcribers usually getting through about 90 pages per day, to have reached 700 in just one single day was simply incredible.
Not only that, but when we checked back the next morning, we saw that even more pages had been transcribed, taking us to a grand total of 765 pages transcribed on the day!
Of course, it wasn’t all about transcribing. We had a great time meeting you, as we gave an introduction to the Voices Through Time project and the archive, held our volunteer meet up at lunchtime and then gathered together in the afternoon for a talk about the Foundling Hospital history, where we had plenty of time for questions and discussion.
It was brilliant to hear about how the records you’ve been transcribing have piqued your interest: from unusual pub names, to strange illnesses, to the captivating stories of mothers’ lives.
You sharing your personal experiences of the project was really moving for us: how transcribing has helped battle illness, get you through bitter lockdowns and connect with a community of fellow transcribers
Our afternoon discussion led us deep into the topic of admissions into the Foundling Hospital, where we learnt more about how children were admitted: how mothers’ petitions were written, who helped them, and what criteria and methods the Foundling Hospital used to discern whether their case was a worthy one.
A huge thank you to everyone who joined in on the day. Your hard work transcribing is what led us to this fantastic achievement.
We have contacted some of you whose queries come up during the online sessions since, but we are sure there’ll be some we’ve missed! If you have a question, just email us on the address below and we’ll be happy to answer it.
If you would like to see the recording of the historic talk and Q&A Zoom session, email us at: VoicesThroughTime@Coram.org.uk
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Finding handmade items in the archives
There are many handmade items present in the Foundling Hospital archive, find out more about how they were made,
in this blog by archive Conservator Wanda Robins here
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Celebrating Care Leavers’ Week
From Monday 25 October – Sunday 31 October we are celebrating the successes of care leavers from across the UK for Care Leavers' Week.
To mark this annual event we are delighted to showcase the creative work of our care-experienced Story of Care Ambassadors, aged 18-25. They have been taking part in creative projects as part of the Voices Through Time programme for the past year, from our spoken word project What’s in a Name, to our Letters from Lockdown project that saw them explore the care experience through written word.
To watch our messages from our Story of Care Ambassadors and read more about Care Leavers’ Week, click here
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Exhibition: Fighting Talk: One Foundling’s Journey from Abandonment to Trafalgar
George King was a foundling whose autobiography reads like the pages of a novel.
It includes tales of being press-ganged into the Navy, surviving brutal and bloody battles and letting his hair down at the theatre
in London’s West End.
This exhibition at The Foundling Museum will look at his extraordinary life, how it connects to the origins of the Foundling Hospital and the contribution made by foundlings to Britain’s military and workforce in the 1700s.
To read more about the exhibition and George King click here
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Update from our Archivist
Racing through the Petition Letters
Transcribers are working their way through the Petition Letters written by mothers and continuing to uncover fascinating stories. Incredibly we have nearly finished this series of Petition Letters, which take us up to 1800.
These won’t be the last Petition Letters we transcribe, as we have another series coming later, but this will be the end of this batch. In the meantime, we’ll be finishing off the Inspection Books…before putting up some completely new and different records to transcribe – watch this space!
For information, the Inspection Books are volumes that record the inspections of a network of voluntary Inspectors, set up by the Foundling Hospital, who would visit the Nurses and the children they were looking after to make sure they were caring for the child as they should. They cover the years 1749-1764.
Transcribathon success
Our Transcribathon event on the 1st of October went so well. A huge thank you to all those who transcribed, joined us at any of the online sessions we ran, or who asked questions and shared their personal experiences.
We loved hearing from Volunteers about the elements in the project they had particularly connected with. Some shared how being able to take part in this project had helped them through testing personal situations over the last year or so. Others shared thoughts on the creative possibilities they see opening up from the discovery of new information in these archives. It was a real privilege to be a part of this.
The Question and Answer session in the afternoon was also excellent. Janette Bright, an historical researcher with years of experience of examining the Foundling Hospital archives shared some compelling information and insights about the admissions process at the Foundling Hospital, and how this changed over the years. The questions then answered by Janette and Carol Harris, Coram’s Social Historian about this led to some poignant and illuminating conversations on the topic.
Feedback from those who attended was hugely positive. A massive thank you to Carol and Janette for their involvement. Sharing their knowledge and reflections has become an invaluable part of our Transcribathon events.
The levels of interest and engagement throughout the whole day were great to see and be a part of. We’ll run another Transcribathon next year at some point, so stay up to date via this newsletter, then you can help us make the next one even more successful than the last!
Jo Blyghton, Voices Through Time Project Archivist
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Visit The Parlour
Our exhibition on Coram campus continues and you are warmly invited to visit. The exhibition is an interactive installation that highlights stories from the archive, plus our recent work with care leavers and young people on the Voices Through Time project.
Some of the display highlights include original archival records from the Foundling Hospital and audio readings of Petition Letters, transcribed through the hard work of our Super Volunteers.
Every three months we will feature the recently uncovered story of an individual foundling, beginning with Ann Watson, one of the known black children in the care of the Foundling Hospital.
To watch a video about the exhibition and see how you can visit, click here
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100 Years of The Kid - The Reality of Child Stardom
2021 is 100 years since Charlie Chaplin directed and starred in The Kid, a feature film which echoes his own difficult childhood years, and of the experience of many children like those who were cared for in the Foundling Hospital.
It tells the story of Chaplin’s Tramp, who finds a baby whose mother has been deserted by the baby’s father without any financial support. In 1921, 5 year old Jackie Coogan was propelled to stardom in The Kid. Jackie, only four when shooting started, was to become a prototype for the child actor as we know it.
Join us for an online discussion event looking at the reality of child stardom through
The California Child Actor's Bill, or the "Coogan Act" and hear about its relevance for child entertainers.
Tuesday 30 November 2021, at 6pm. To register for free as a volunteer, click here
To read more about Chaplin’s The Kid and its relevance to the experience of foundlings, read our article here
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u3a project to launch with Coram
This Autumn, we are excitedly preparing a new mini-project within the Voices Through Time programme. We will be partnering with the educational organisation University of the Third Age (u3a) to deliver a learning project for u3a members.
Members will use transcribed Foundling Hospital records to research lives of individuals connected to the Foundling Hospital. This could be mothers, children or anyone connected to the Hospital (staff, governors etc).
This will no doubt lead to some fascinating stories being uncovered.
We look forward to sharing more about this with you as time goes on!
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Online talk: Discover the world of shops in Georgian London
Georgian London was full of shops offering a huge variety of goods from across the world. In this Foundling Museum talk, Jon Stobart will explore the rich visual representation of goods, people and places found in trade cards, and asks what this form of advertising can tell us about retailing during this period.
Wednesday 10 November, 1pm. To book your free ticket click here
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Tell us how you’d like to connect
This month we’re thinking about ways to get to know our wonderful community better.
Since transcribing on Zooniverse is all done remotely, we know that you haven’t had a chance to meet each other yet, or for us to have a chat in person. We’d like to do something about that, by organising a meet up - either online, in person, or both.
How would you like to connect with the team and other transcribers?
Would you like to meet on Zoom?
Or maybe a visit to the archives would be your thing.
Let us know by dropping us an email at: VoicesThroughTime@Coram.org.uk
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Stitch in Time begins
Our latest creative project involving young people with experience of care has got off to a great start this month.
A Stitch in Time is exploring the history of the Foundling Hospital through textiles. Participants are looking at the daily routine of the Foundling Hospital pupils to explore how the history of care resonates with them and connects to their present day experiences.
Using a variety of textile techniques and craftivism, they are creating their own individual samplers, which will be pieced together into one whole narrative blanket, and then exhibited at the Foundling Museum.
To find out more about the project, click here
To see updates on the project follow our Twitter and Instagram pages:
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Saving damaged records in our archive
Our fantastic conservators are busy in our archives, restoring our precious records so that they can be digitised for future generations. This blog explores how they go about saving records that have been damaged. Read all about the process here
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Stories from the Talk message board
Transcribing the Petition Letters doesn’t just mean imagining streets of London past, put often those of other countries, both neighbouring nations and faraway lands.
A French archbishop and the Foundling Hospital
After the French Revolution, people of Catholic faith were persecuted, and many fled the country. @SueTall found an intriguing letter from one such Catholic, an Archbishop. This is the petition of a lady named Marie Adel Ransin, written on her behalf by the Archbishop of Toulouse & Narbonne, Arthur Richard Dillon. In it Mr Dillon writes that Mrs Ransin’s husband has lost all his fortune in France and is now in exile in Vienna.
We hear that Mrs Ransin has just given birth in the maternity hospital located on Brownlow Street (in Holborn, not far from the Foundling Hospital). She is asking the Foundling Hospital to take her baby in, although she hopes that she’ll be able to come back and reclaim him one day.
@SueTall’s discovery of this letter led her to go on a journey into the background of this story. It turns out the reason the archbishop of Narbonne was writing this in London, is that he left France in 1790. This was due to his refusal to accept the civil constitution of the clergy there. He later died in 1806 and was buried in St Pancras churchyard, also nearby to the Foundling Hospital.
To see the letter and read more curious facts about the archbishop, click here
From Bengal to Belgium to Britain
One well-known foundling story is that of a woman named Peggy, described as “Black Peggy” in the records. “Black Peggy” was from Bengal, aged fourteen and worked for an English woman named Elizabeth Harding. Peggy had a baby by another of Mrs Harding’s servants whilst sailing to England.
A few weeks ago @GrandaughterofFoundlingKitty transcribed Peggy’s petition letter requesting her child be looked after in the Foundling Hospital. In the letter, Peggy explains how her fellow servant James Murray after promising to marry her, left her in Ostend, Belgium as they voyaged to England. She writes how Mrs Harding’s “kind humanity” is the only thing that supported her through this difficult experience.
Peggy’s daughter was admitted into the Foundling Hospital on 4 May 1793, given the number 18142 and then baptised as Jane Williams.
To see the petition, click here
To read more about Peggy and the archival documents that give us the background to her story, see this Untold Lives blog from the British Library here
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Online talk: An Eighteenth-Century Influencer?
The Saintly Scandals of the ‘Maid of Bath’
In this talk Foundling Museum PhD student Lizzy Buckle will explore the colourful life of the Georgian singer Elizabeth Linley, who overcame scandals to create a saintly image. Listen as she shares all about a gorgeous Georgian protagonist, duelling lovers, an overbearing father, a broken marriage proposal, and an elopement.
Thursday 18 November, 1pm. To book your free ticket click here
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Coram Children’s Legal Centre, promotes and protects the rights of children in the UK and internationally. Experts in all areas of children’s rights, they provide legal advice and representation, and challenge laws and policies that negatively impact on children and their rights.
Join us for an online event to celebrate 40 years of the legal centre championing children’s rights.
Tuesday 23 November 2021, at 6pm. To register for free as a volunteer, click here
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Thank you
We’re really enjoying transcribing with you this Autumn.
Thank you for staying involved.
Let's keep discovering the story of care together. #RealStoriesOfCare
Molly, Jo and the Voices Through Time team
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