Figure 1.--We do not know the name of this English orphanage and who sponsored it. They could be work house childre, but the building in the background looks more like an orphnage than a work house and we do not think many work houses, if zny, received royal patronage. We suspect there was some royal patronage. Queen Victoria celebrated a Silver Jubilee in 1887 and a Diamond Jubilee in 1897. The quality of the photograph and the adults' dress suggests that this was the later date. The boys and girls seem to be dressed mostly in dresses and pinafores. We are not sure why the one boy is wearing what looks like a knee pants suit. Perhaps he was a new arrival. We only see one other boy who looks like he has been breeched.
The English system caring for indigent children became intenable with the Industrial Revolutiuon (late-18th centuyry) and the growth of industrial cities. The Industrial Revolution generated great wealth and created an affluent middle class as well as a relatively well paid working class. There was also great poverty and unlike rural poverty it was more concentrated and visible. The public workhouses for families proved to be dreadful places. Women were particularly vulnerable and many were forced to abandon their babies. An orphanage movement began in England with the establishment of the Orphan Working Home (1758). Conditions in early orphanages and work houses were dreadful. And they were unacceptable to the values of the rising Victorian middle class. Numerous sources credit Charles Dickens for bringing about changes. This is an over simplification. Dickens certainly helped bring the problem to public attention. It was, however, the Victorian middle class created by capitalism that demanded changes in public policy. And it was the wealth generated by capitalism that gave Britain (both charities and the state) the financial ability to address the problem. The result was important reforns. Private orphanages (often called asylums) were founded by various private groups throughout Britain during the Victorian era. The most important was the Methodist National Children's Homes (NCH). Many received royal patronage and there was also public oversight. These orphanages commonly practiced some form of "binding-out" in which children, beyond a certain age, were given as apprentices. The girls became domestic servants. The boys work as aprentices in the trades, learning an occupation. A few orphanages were established in the early-19th century. Most were established after mid-century.
