How can such tiny objects hold so much meaning?

Hear personal stories, historical insights and creative responses – all inspired by the Foundling tokens.

The Founding Hospital was one of Britain's first children's homes established in London in 1739. In its early days, anyone giving a baby into its care would also leave a token. This might be a ring, a metal, a poem, a playing card, or even a hazelnut. These precious, deeply personal objects are on display today at the Foundling Museum in London.

We've been talking to people with a connection to the Museum. In this podcast, they take one token and share what they know, what they feel and what they imagine.

Today, we begin at the heart of the matter – with tokens of love.

Presented by Kathleen Palmer, former Curator of Exhibitions and Displays at London’s Foundling Museum.

Written and produced by Minnie Scott with Louis Mealing.
Music by Ben Jacob.
Audio production by Will Jacob.

Interviewees:
Sally Holloway, a historian of gender, emotions, and visual and material culture in Britain and the world over the long eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
View the token Sally chose here.

Bez, a trainee on the Foundling Museum’s Tracing Our Tales programme for care-experienced young people aged 18-29.
View the token Bez chose here.

––
The tokens are your passport to Georgian London in our online exhibition, Tokens of History. Discover different facets of eighteenth-century society, guided by nine historians – including Sally Holloway who you heard in this week’s episode.
––

You can see Bez and Sally's tokens, along with many others, on display at the Foundling Museum
40 Brunswick Square
London, WC1N 1AZ
Tuesday – Saturday 10am – 5pm
Sunday 11am – 5pm

Take this Token and Tokens of History are supported by the Woven Foundation, previously the Artisa Foundation, and the Deborah Loeb Brice Foundation.