The Charles Dickens Museum
Charles Dickens was more than a novelist, as can be seen at London’s Charles Dickens Museum ⇒.
The museum includes a large number of educational items together with some furniture and artifacts from Dickens life. Not far away is the Foundling Museum ⇐ which represents a charity supported by Dickens.
A little walk through some of the exhibits common to a Dickens day.
A chalice presented to Charles Dickens by the the Morning Chronicle
Whilst there is a fee to enter the museum, there is a pleasant indoor/outdoor café that is free to enter.
The Foundling Museum, London
The Foundling Museum includes history and artifacts of the Foundling Hospital. The creation of the hospital began as a campaign in 1720 by sea captain Thomas Coram to relieve the plight of abandoned children. Eventually, in 1739, a charter for a foundling hospital was granted by King George II. Over the years the charity was supported by notables such as Handel, Hogarth and Charles Dickens..
Statue of Thomas Coram
The museum holds a number of exhibitions and displays and it is well worth checking the website ⇒, the hospital history ⇒ and Coram’s Charity history ⇒.
King George II by John Shackleton
The hospital was based on well meaning intent and saved many young lives. Nevertheless, life could be harsh in a stern regime especially for boys, as told by the harrowing tale of Tom Mckenzie (The Last Foundling ⇒).
Girls Uniform
Although perhaps not all the time.
Foundling Girls in the Chapel by Sophia Anderson
The museum contains numerous works of art donated by the artists.
The March of the Guards to Finchley by Hogarth
Duke of Cambridge
Robert Gray
Hetty Feather
Hetty Feather was a temporary exhibition based around the heroin’s exploits at odds with the strictures of a foundling’s life. The stories have been in book and TV form.
The young patients at Great Ormond Street Hospital, inspired by the Hetty Feather stories and the lack of kindness that they expose, produced a number of art works telling of the kindness that they receive in more modern times. Some are on show at the Foundling Museum. This one caught my eye.
The Kindness Scale.
I have always believed and always observed that when children are treated with wisdom and shown kind example then they show us the the true nature of humanity. Another example that kind nature being here ⇐ and more of the past that made the present in Wheels on Fire ⇐.
Have a kind day.
Freed From Time 