The first Magdalen institution was founded in late 1758 in Whitechapel, England,[1] which led to the establishment of a similar institution in Ireland by 1767.[1] The first Magdalene asylum in the United States was the Magdalen Society of Philadelphia, founded in 1800; other North American cities, including New York, Boston, Chicago, and Toronto, quickly followed suit.[2][3] In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Magdalen asylums were common in several countries.[2] By 1900, there were more than 300 asylums in England and more than 20 in Scotland.