<b>Nominated for the 2005 Norma Fleck Award</b><br><br>Thousands of mothers carried their babies to the gates of the Foundling Hospital desperate to save them from the cruel streets of eighteenth-century London. Each baby was left with a personal “token” – identification if a repentant mother ever returned to reclaim her child.<br><br>Captain Thomas Coram, himself childless, was inspired by the sight of babies abandoned on dung heaps to petition the king for support in building a home for England's poorest children. Coram's vision saved countless children's lives.<br><br><i>A Home for Foundlings</i> describes the hospital Captain Coram founded, the luminaries involved – including Handel, Hogarth, and Dickens – and the daily lives of the foundlings themselves.<br><br>Full of archival photos and materials, and published in cooperation with the newly established Foundling Museum in London and Lord Cultural Resources, <i>A Home for Foundlings</i> is a fascinating, heartbreaking, and timely book. Author Marthe Jocelyn's text has particular resonance: her grandfather, Arthur Jocelyn, was raised in the Foundling Hospital.