The stories of the babies of the wheel - Diário de Notícias | 13 april 2019
Foundling Tokens
The “tokens” of the children left in the foundling wheel of Lisbon, are a significant historical asset kept in the Historical Archive of the Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa.
These “tokens” are mostly composed of a ‘note’, i.e., a textual document, usually on paper, in which the parent or someone designated thereby, recorded information regarding the child that was considered necessary or useful. The “token” essentially served as a mark and individualizing element of the child, but sometimes it was also used as a means of sharing anxieties, the causes of abandonment, and also the conveyance of requests regarding the child’s future.
THE TOKENS
Some of these documents, in addition to the ‘note’, were accompanied by other pieces that, from a symbolic point of view, aimed to place the abandoned child under the protection, shielding or intercession of the divine (through images of saints, medals, crucifixes, etc.), secular objects (charms, clovers, amulets, playing cards, etc.), or even affective items (ribbons, embroidery, socks, mother’s hair, etc.).
This documentary series is composed of more than 86.700 “token”, which makes this set one of the most significant in numerical terms and in chronological comprehensiveness.