Girls in the Innocenti Archive: A Project to Preserve the Memory of the Young Nocentine

The pilot project “Girls in the Innocenti Archive: 1900-1921”, aimed at protecting and showcasing the identifying tokens that belonged to the girls taken in by the Hospital in the early decades of the 20^th century,ends with an exhibition at the Museo degli Innocenti.

Promoted by the Istituto degli Innocenti in collaboration with the Calliope Arts Foundation, the project has led to the restoration, conservation, study, and digitisation of 120 tokens and related documents preserved in the Institution’s Historical Archive. Thanks to these activities, it has been possible to preserve the memory of the young nocentine and make their stories accessible to the public - also online - placing them within the broader context of the social and cultural history of the last century.

The initiative, launched in October 2024, was conceived with the objective of protecting a unique heritage of great historical and emotional value, contributing to the reconstruction of 20^th century women's history. The project is part of the Institute’s broader programme of research and popularisation of its heritage. Its Historical Archive preserves over 13,000 archival units and approximately 40,000 identification tokens - small objects of great symbolic value that tell the stories of the girls and boys taken in over the centuries by the old Ospedale degli Innocenti. It is one of the largest collections of its kind in the world, for which recognition as a World Heritage asset and inclusion in UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register have been requested.

The project was sponsored by the Calliope Arts Foundation, an organisation dedicated to promoting art, literature, and social history from a female perspective through restoration projects, exhibitions, and educational and cultural initiatives.

Special thanks are therefore extended for their valuable support of the project to: Calliope Arts Foundation and donors Margie MacKinnon and Wayne McArdle, Connie and Doug Clark.

The Exhibition and the Bilingual Publication

At the conclusion of the first phase dedicated to the study and conservation of the tokens, the project culminated in the creation of an exhibition and a bilingual publication (Italian and English) documenting the research and preservation process, offering an insight into the condition of women in welfare institutions of the twentieth century.

The exhibition, which will open to the public on 14 November,presents a selection of more than one hundred identifying tokens that belonged to the girls accepted by the Ospedale degli Innocenti between 1900 and 1921, together with documents that tell their stories. Through a journey that brings together objects, images and testimonies, the exhibition restores visibility to the stories of the girls taken in in the early 20^th century, offering the public an opportunity to reflect on the memory, fragility and strength of their lives.

With Girls in the Innocenti Archive: 1900-1921”, the Istituto degli Innocenti renews its commitment to preserving memory, promoting the culture of childhood, and supporting mothers in difficulty, reaffirming the central role of the Museum as a place of research, reflection, and dialogue between past and present.