The second in our series I'm Sent To Find, If Fortune's Kind, this display explored the life of one of the few foundlings of colour.

London witnessed a growing black population during the eighteenth-century and some of them requested that their infants be taken into the care of the Foundling Hospital. But how do we uncover these stories of people of colour and their children? This display explored ongoing research by Hannah Dennett into identifying these foundlings through the story of Thomas Trowbridge, who was admitted to the institution in 1798.

Hannah Dennett completed her BA in History and MA in History at Nottingham Trent University, where she was awarded the History Subject Prize and a Research Pathways Scholarship, before starting her PhD at the University of Warwick last year. Her project, Forgotten Foundlings: Black Lives and the Eighteenth-Century Foundling Hospital, is a collaboration between the Founding Museum and the University of Warwick, funded by Midlands4Cities. You can read more of Hannah’s work on Thomas Trowbridge in this University of Warwick blog post or listen to this online talk.