Hi, thank you for reading our post:
We'll be in London again this spring.
The Great Ormond st Childrens Hospital came up in a discussion with my daughter.
Though well known & respected in the UK,, virtually unknown in the US.
The Barrie copyrite connection came to my daughters attention in the opening credits of our favorite Disney classic, Peter Pan.
Is the Hospitals museum worth a look? No one does a museum like the Brits.
And is the hospital supported by public funds,, or is it still privately funded? This question a throwback to the Barrie Copyrite. Any other interesting info anyone knows?
Also the kids asked:
The Reform Club and The Around the World in 80 Days connection.
Can anyone tell us a little about the Reform Club?
We have only learned that they aren't keen about the fiction story 80 days connection.
Is it a fraternal club of some sort? What kind of members does it have?
Do they have any events or charities or cause of any sort?
Thank you and it's appreciated for any info. The kids want to check it all out if it's noteworthy. The only dumb questions are questions not asked.
Hi Casanova,
Gt Ormond St Hospital is now supported out of public funding and is a fully integrated part of the National Health Service. However, like most NHS hospitals they are very grateful for the extra money that is provided by the Barry bequest which enables them to provide 'extras' but all the services are free at the point of delivery to patients. However, I doubt that the museum is of much interest to the general public visitor. It can only be visited by appointment and is much more geared up to the needs of the academic research community than the general public. I think that you daughter would probably find it much more interesting to visit the nearby Foundlings Museum which contains the Coram Foundation collection and which does have connections with the institution which was the forerunner for the Gt Ormond Street Hospital. You'll find more details at both:
http://www.coram.org.uk/heritage.htm
http://www.medicalmuseums.org/museums/found.htm
The Coram Foundation was originally founded to look after orphans and in the way of these things at the time most of their charges were the children of unmarried mothers. Latterly the Foundation also started to provide medical care for the children of those families that couldn't afford to pay for it and the current Gt Ormond Street Hospital grew out these activities. Rather like the extra funding provided by the Barrie copyright income, the Coram Foundation does I think still provide additional financial support to the hospital in the form of mainly funding to enable research to carried out.
In what was an enlightened attitude for the time the Trustees encouraged the mothers to leave a letter and some sort of personal token to be given to their children as a reminder of them when they were older and able to leave. The much higher infant mortality rates of the era meant that many of these babies never survived long enough to be given them and the Trust kept hold of them. These now form an important collection of particular importance to social historians but of great interest to anybody who wants to know more about just how things have changed for young women caught in this position and homeless and destitute children and young people. Many of the women were obviously poor but others judging by the tokens they left would appear to have been moderately or even very well off and leaving their children in the care of the foundation because of the social stigma rather than because they couldn't afford to look after their child. The stories told in some of the letters explaining why they felt they had to give up their children and letting them know how much they had been loved by their mothers' are heartrending.
As for the Reform Club, well that's an entirely different proposition! It's a private gentlemen's club that once had strong connections with the Liberal (now Liberal Democrat) Party having it's origins in the Whig party of the 18C but I doubt that many members of the club are now members of the party or neceassarily 'liberal' in their politics. The 'Reform' in question that most members would have been expected to subscribe too originally would have been the repeal of the Corn Laws and hence the support of Free Trade. Later it was associated with those who were interested in promoting Electoral Reform. In the past it had many members from the field of literature - 'men of letters' as they would have been called at the time. I don't know if comparable institutions exist in the US or not but's it's not like the Rotary or Round Table or similar men's organisations which is what I assume you mean by 'fraternal club'.
As far as I know it has no charitable causes associated with it and is extremely unlikely to hold public events of any sort. The most your daughter is likely to ever get to see is the outside and I can well understand that they would be a bit snooty about the literary connection! The surprising thing is that the author made Phineas Fogg a member - it was much more likely that in reality such a character would have been a member of the Travellers Club which attracted an altogether racier sort of member!
Hope the above is of interest and help.
SM
Gt Ormond St Hospital is now supported out of public funding and is a fully integrated part of the National Health Service. However, like most NHS hospitals they are very grateful for the extra money that is provided by the Barry bequest which enables them to provide 'extras' but all the services are free at the point of delivery to patients. However, I doubt that the museum is of much interest to the general public visitor. It can only be visited by appointment and is much more geared up to the needs of the academic research community than the general public. I think that you daughter would probably find it much more interesting to visit the nearby Foundlings Museum which contains the Coram Foundation collection and which does have connections with the institution which was the forerunner for the Gt Ormond Street Hospital. You'll find more details at both:
http://www.coram.org.uk/heritage.htm
http://www.medicalmuseums.org/museums/found.htm
The Coram Foundation was originally founded to look after orphans and in the way of these things at the time most of their charges were the children of unmarried mothers. Latterly the Foundation also started to provide medical care for the children of those families that couldn't afford to pay for it and the current Gt Ormond Street Hospital grew out these activities. Rather like the extra funding provided by the Barrie copyright income, the Coram Foundation does I think still provide additional financial support to the hospital in the form of mainly funding to enable research to carried out.
In what was an enlightened attitude for the time the Trustees encouraged the mothers to leave a letter and some sort of personal token to be given to their children as a reminder of them when they were older and able to leave. The much higher infant mortality rates of the era meant that many of these babies never survived long enough to be given them and the Trust kept hold of them. These now form an important collection of particular importance to social historians but of great interest to anybody who wants to know more about just how things have changed for young women caught in this position and homeless and destitute children and young people. Many of the women were obviously poor but others judging by the tokens they left would appear to have been moderately or even very well off and leaving their children in the care of the foundation because of the social stigma rather than because they couldn't afford to look after their child. The stories told in some of the letters explaining why they felt they had to give up their children and letting them know how much they had been loved by their mothers' are heartrending.
As for the Reform Club, well that's an entirely different proposition! It's a private gentlemen's club that once had strong connections with the Liberal (now Liberal Democrat) Party having it's origins in the Whig party of the 18C but I doubt that many members of the club are now members of the party or neceassarily 'liberal' in their politics. The 'Reform' in question that most members would have been expected to subscribe too originally would have been the repeal of the Corn Laws and hence the support of Free Trade. Later it was associated with those who were interested in promoting Electoral Reform. In the past it had many members from the field of literature - 'men of letters' as they would have been called at the time. I don't know if comparable institutions exist in the US or not but's it's not like the Rotary or Round Table or similar men's organisations which is what I assume you mean by 'fraternal club'.
As far as I know it has no charitable causes associated with it and is extremely unlikely to hold public events of any sort. The most your daughter is likely to ever get to see is the outside and I can well understand that they would be a bit snooty about the literary connection! The surprising thing is that the author made Phineas Fogg a member - it was much more likely that in reality such a character would have been a member of the Travellers Club which attracted an altogether racier sort of member!
Hope the above is of interest and help.
SM
Thank you SM, very informative.
We'll check out your suggestions.
Sounds like a teriffic afternoon for us.
We really appreciate the historic information.
Around every corner in the UK is something of interest. Sometimes one just has to scratch the surface a bit to find it.
I'll give up the idea of raising a glass with the decendants of Mr. Fogg though.
We'll check out your suggestions.
Sounds like a teriffic afternoon for us.
We really appreciate the historic information.
Around every corner in the UK is something of interest. Sometimes one just has to scratch the surface a bit to find it.
I'll give up the idea of raising a glass with the decendants of Mr. Fogg though.
Post a Reply
Please sign in or register an account to reply to this post.
Similar Topics