EAST blog

Snowed in - thinking about connections!

Today I should have been in London looking at archives dating back 200+ years, but instead I am at home looking at the snow. I'm not completely snowed in but with the threat of more snow to come today, I was concerned that I may end up stuck in a snow drift on the way home. It is always unfortunate when you have a day planned and then those plans are thwarted. However what it does do is give me a chance to do other things, and that included updating this blog.

One of the documents I was going to look at relates to a poor woman who admitted two of her children to the Foundling Hospital because she was in Newgate; (her full story will be revealed at our Braintree EAST exhibition). But it made me realise how lucky I am only being "trapped" by a little bit of snow (that will probably be gone soon) and not stuck in an 18th century prison knowing the terrible fate that awaits me, like poor Mrs Larney! Mrs Larney and I do have at least one thing in common - I know she sewed, and before that fateful day when she was imprisoned she was going about her daily life buying patterns for her husband's shirts (this bit is not quite like me, who probably would go to M&S). But what did she think about while she sat stitching them - what she was going to cook for dinner, how to stop the children from making too much noise, how she was going to pay the bills - so perhaps not so different from many modern stitchers?

On a slightly different tack, earlier in the week I had the privilege of being invited to the Foundling Museum's annual Volunteers Christmas Party and what struck me there was how so many people can be brought together just because of an interest in one small museum. Apparently the museum has more than 150 volunteers and going by the selection that made it that evening, a group of people of diverse ages and interests. And of course many artists have been drawn to the museum (and the hospital before it, eg Hogarth, Gainsborough, Handel etc) all with a similar starting point, and yet interpreting their thoughts and impressions in vastly different ways. At present there is a film/sound display on in their exhibition gallery which I did visit briefly and in the new year there will be a new exhibition by Mat Collishaw, Tracey Emin and Paula Rego - so I may not be in quite the same league but at least I can feel we have something in common!

Above - Coram's Fields - the site of the old Foundling Hospital. For more information on the exhibitions at the Foundling Museum - www.foundlingmuseum.org.uk

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