Girls in the Innocenti Archives: 1900-1921

The Exhibition

The exhibition focus "Girls in the Innocenti Archives: 1900 - 1921" concludes the pilot project dedicated to the preservation and enhancement of the recognition signs that belonged to the girls taken in by the Hospital in the early decades of the 20th century, carried out by theIstituto degli Innocenti in collaboration with Calliope Arts Foundation.

The temporary exhibition held at the Museo degli Innocenti, is open to the public from November 14, 2025 to March 15, 2026.

The exhibition presents a selection of more than one hundred identification signs that belonged to the girls taken in at the Ospedale degli Innocenti between 1900 and 1921, along with documents that tell their stories. Through a path that combines objects, images and testimonies, the exhibition restores visibility to the stories of the girls taken in in the early 20th century, offering the public an opportunity to reflect on the memory, fragility and strength of their lives.

The 'Istituto degli Innocenti thus renews its commitment to the preservation of memory and the enhancement of its cultural heritage, while affirming the culture of children's rights and support for mothers in distress through the Museum, understood as a place for research, reflection and dialogue between past and present.

The exhibition, produced in Italian and English, is accompanied by a short bilingual publication available for purchase at the Museum Bookshop that documents the research and conservation work that has been done, offering a glimpse into the condition of women in twentieth-century welfare institutions.

The pilot project

The project, sponsored by Calliope Arts Foundation, which is committed to promoting art, literature and social history from a women's perspective, thanks to the support of donors Margie MacKinnon, Wayne McArdle, Connie and Doug Clark, .led to the restoration, preservation, study and digitization of some 120 signs and related documents held in the Institute's Historical Archives. Through these activities, it has been possible to preserve the memory of the little "nocentines" and make their stories accessible to the public, including online, placing them in the broader context of the social and cultural history of the last century.

The initiative, launched in October 2024, was created with the aim of protecting a unique heritage of great historical and emotional value, contributing to the reconstruction of 20th-century women's history. The project is part of the research and enhancement activities of the Institute's heritage, which preserves in its Historical Archives more than 13,000 archival units and about 40,000 identification signs: small objects with a strong symbolic value that tell the stories of girls and children taken in over the centuries by the former Ospedale degli Innocenti. This is one of the most extensive collections in the world, for which recognition as a World Heritage Site and candidacy to become part of UNESCO's Memory of the World Register has been requested along with other international institutions.

Beginning November 14, 2025 daily from 9:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.

Special openings

Saturday, November 1, 2025: 9:30 a.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Monday, December 8, 2025: 9:30 a.m. - 7 p.m.
Wednesday, December 24, 2025: 9:30 a.m. - 3 p.m.
Thursday, December 25, 2025: closed
Friday, December 26, 2025: 9:30 a.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Wednesday, December 31, 2025: 9:30 a.m. - 3 p.m.
Thursday, January 1, 2026: 12:30 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Tuesday, January 6, 2026: 9:30 a.m. - 7 p.m.

Last admission: one hour before closing time.