Infanticide and Spectral Survival at the London Foundling Hospital

Abstract

Focusing on the work of the London Foundling Hospital between 1741 and the mid-1860s, this article will explore the significance of infanticide, futurity, and “fraud” in understanding the status and condition of the foundling and the complex history of the hospital. This article will build on other contemporary critical studies of the hospital but will highlight that within the context of the hospital and its work, loss, and preservation become inseparable and, at times, indistinguishable. Drawing on the concept of “hauntology” it will therefore emphasize both the role of infanticide and fraud in the hospital’s history, and the conceptual figure of “living spectres” that are inextricably linked to that history.