Expanding Access, Deepening Insights: Coram’s Foundling Hospital Archive Online

Description

On 17 October 1739, Thomas Coram received a Royal Charter to establish London’s Foundling Hospital.  To celebrate this anniversary in 2024, the children’s charity Coram will launch online 405 digitised and transcribed volumes from its Foundling Hospital Archive. Two-thirds of the 100,000 digitised pages fall within the long 18th century, covering the lives of 19,000 children. In addition to providing insights into the history of care, the records are significant resources for women’s history, textile history, and working people’s history. This talk will delve into the digital archive, highlighting key content areas, transcription considerations, and opportunities for future data mining.The digitisation and transcription projects were part of Coram’s Voices Through Time: The Story of Care programme, made possible by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

This seminar aims to create a welcoming space for discussion and debate, fostering a professional environment where diverse views and perspectives can be shared. You can find more on this via our seminar page on the IHR website.

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All welcome. This event is free to attend, but advance registration is required.

This will be a ‘hybrid’ seminar with a limited number of places available in person and a larger number of bookings for online attendance via Zoom. Those attending in person are asked to bring a Wi-Fi enabled laptop, tablet or phone.

The session will start at the slightly later time of 17:30.