This is Kootje, one of a matched pair of orphans who grace the gate of the former Holy Ghost Orphanage in Leiden. If anyone can explain to me why he and Kaatje each have one red and one white sleeve, I’d love to know. The tourist plaque outside the gateway has a picture from a 16th-century manuscript showing the dining hall full of orphans in exactly the uniforms Kaatje and Kootje wear, including the white left sleeve, but the internet doesn’t seem to know the significance of this.
And does anybody else think that the orphanage bears a more than passing resemblance both to Ainsworth Elementary School and a prison?
The orphans of Leiden were cared for out of the public coffers, but they paid back this debt in full in the form of labor, often in the textile industry. Boys were taught a trade and girls were taught domestic skills in order to obtain posts as maidservants.