NEW YORK (Daily Mail) -- The New York Historical Society has put together a collection of the heartbreaking notes left on abandoned babies at the New York Foundling Asylum when it was first opened in 1869.
The Daily Mail reports the New York Foundling Asylum was started by three Catholic nuns in 1869. At night they would leave a wicker basket on the stoop and almost every morning there would be a child there. By the end of the year they had 81 babies in their care.
The photo galler attached is pictures of the notes pinned to the children when they were left at the doorstep.
The institution was renamed the Foundling Hospital and is now located on Sixth Avenue and 17th Street. The center continues to look after thousands of foster children along with having a special needs center and maternity unit.