In 1871, Dr. George E. Shipman and his wife opened a home for Chicago's abandoned infants. For the next 100 years, the Chicago Foundlings Home took in babies, some left in a basket at the door, sheltered mothers who had nowhere else to go, and placed children with adoptive families across the region.
Thanks to genealogists Ellen Driscoll, Elizabeth Knight of Ancestry Sisters and Katharine Korte Andrew, we now know much more about that story, and we're adding their findings to our History page.
Highlights from the research:
A founding inspired by others. Newspaper accounts and primary sources say the Shipmans were inspired by George Müller's orphan houses in Bristol, England, and Dr. Charles Cullis's work in Boston.
A home on Wood Street. The Home opened on January 30, 1871, and in 1874 moved to a four-story building on South Wood Street, where it stayed until 1960. Its address changed several times as Chicago renumbered its streets.
Mothers, too. The Home was never only for babies. In its early years, many young mothers who had been turned away by their families came to stay and worked as wet nurses for the infants in its care.
A Chicago community effort. A Ladies' Union Aid Society raised money and sewed and knitted clothes for the babies. In 1873, Cook County Commissioner Carter H. Harrison donated his entire salary to the Home.
A new building, then a new chapter. A new home opened at 1720 W. Polk Street in 1960. By 1971, as attitudes toward single motherhood changed, the residential Home closed after exactly 100 years. In 1972 its building was sold to Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center, the same Rush whose Adolescent Family Center we support today.
Where the records are. Researchers point to several sources for anyone tracing a Foundlings Home connection: the Home's account book (1884 to 1922) and other publications at the Chicago History Museum, early annual reports digitized on Google Books, and the Near West Side Community Collection at the Chicago Public Library.
Were you or a family member born at or adopted through the Chicago Foundlings Home? We hear from adoptees and their families often, and we'd love to hear from you. Contact us at info@chicagofoundlingshome.org. If you were born in Illinois, you may also be able to request your original birth certificate through the Illinois Department of Public Health's adoption registry.
Thank you to the Ancestry Sisters and Katharine Korte Andrew for their research. Read the full research guide at Institution Guide.