An Account of the Rise, Progress, and Present State of the Magdalen Hospital, for the Reception of Penitent Prostitutes. 5th edition

1776

Shoults Eb 1776 D

London: Printed by W. Faden, for the Charity

In 1758, the first Magdalen Hospital for ‘penitent prostitutes’ was set up in London. It was founded as a ‘humane scheme devised for the relief of those pitiable sufferers; for their rescue from calamities’. Admissions were once a month and women could not be pregnant or have any diseases. Upon entry, their street clothes were taken away and they were issued with a ‘uniform’, including a ‘grey shalloon [woollen] dress’. The woman in this frontispiece is an example of how the ‘inmates’ of the hospital looked. The Hospital was closely associated with the Church, as is intimated by the appearance of the chapel in the background of this image.