Apr 24, 2020 the orphan train movement was an effort to transport orphaned or abandoned children from cities on the united states east coast to homes in the newly settled midwest. The orphan trains american experience, dvd, television, special interestdocumentary, 841887006514. Historical fiction books national orphan train complex. Nov, 2020 the phenomenon of orphan trains is a fascinating and upsetting aspect of new yorks history which has captured the imagination of genealogists and popular culture alike. This american experience documentary follows the stories of minister charles loring brace, the founder of the childrens aid society, and of the children who went on to new homes. American experience the orphan trains tells the story of charles loring brace and the childrens aid society. Most had lived in new york citys streets and slums with little or no hope of a successful future. One interesting program that was presented at a library in louisiana. Watch the orphan trains american experience official site pbs.
Belonging and connection molly ayer and vivian daly, two women born in different places and eras and who were orphaned as young children, both struggle to find a sense of home and belonging. From 1854 to 1929 an estimated 250,000 orphaned, abandoned, and homeless children were placed throughout the united states and canada during the orphan train movement. The orphan train heritage society of america was founded in 1986 by mary. Teachers guide american experience pbs orphan train. The movement was created in 1853 by protestant minister charles loring brace, founder of the childrens aid society of new york city. This wellwritten volume sheds new light on the multifaceted experience of. Apr 11, 20 christina baker klines new novel incorporates a true piece of american history. These book discussion questions are highly detailed and will ruin plot points if you have not read the book. Between 1854 and 1929, over 250,000 orphans and surrendered children were placed out across the country. After tragedy, young girl shipped west on orphan train. Christina baker klines orphan train is an unforgettable story of friendship and second chances that highlights a littleknown but historically significant movement in americas pastand it includes a special ps section for book clubs featuring insights, interviews, and more. Elliot bobos remarkable story is part of the orphan trains. In 1995, the american experience produced a documentary on the orphan trains. Christina baker klines new novel incorporates a true piece of american history.
Orphan train historical background christina baker kline. Just before dutchy goes home with a farmer in minneapolis, minnesota, he and niamh promise to find each other again someday. Nov 27, 1995 directed by janet graham, edward gray. The resulting orphan train movement aimed to validate these children and culminated in 16 jacob a. The orphan trains dvd, 2006, closed caption for sale. Be sure to include in your reading how lee became an orphan train rider, his experience on the orphan train, who his adoptive parents were, and what happened to lee as an adult. Some became foster children or were adopted into a family. It is a good introduction for elementary aged students, with lots of pictures to help explain the text.
Orphan train is a harrowing but ultimately uplifting story about this historical phenomenon. The story of this ambitious and finally controversial effort to rescue poor and homeless children begins in the 1850s, when thousands of children roamed the streets of new york in search of money, food and shelterprey to disease and crime. But probably not detailed enough to give the whole experience justice. Apr 03, 20 the modern foster system evolved in part from the orphan train experience. On the train, niamh befriends dutchy, a twelveyearold boy, and takes care of carmine, a toddler. Panhandle state university, the children often had unpleasant experiences. The orphan train movement was an effort to transport orphaned or abandoned children from cities on the united states east coast to homes in the newly settled midwest.
The children ranged in age from about six to 18 and were homeless or neglected. The orphan train movement was a supervised welfare program that transported orphaned and homeless children from crowded eastern cities of the united states to foster homes located largely in rural areas of the midwest. Until 1929, braces society and other charities sent more than 150,000 neglected children by train to 47 states. Typical, high quality, american experience production. There are many more videos on youtube that feature speakers and programs about the orphan train programs. Panhandle state university, the children often had unpleasant experien. See more ideas about orphan train, orphan train book, orphan.
The orphan trains follows the story of the new york childrens aid society, created in 1853 to provide thousands of street children with homes in rural communities in the american midwest. From 1854 to 1929, hundreds of thousands of abandoned and orphaned children were sent from east coast cities to the american countryside in a placing out effort to find them loving homes. A treasure trove of information and links relating to orphan train from which many of the. Readers who are unfamiliar with this episode in american history might be surprised to learn about the hardships and be struck by the parallels between niamhvivians experience nearly a hundred years ago and the foster care system today. Riders on the orphan train is a novel about a little known piece of american history. I dont have the information to answer your question, but i suggest you contact the national orphan train complex.
Premiered october 1988 as televisions longestrunning, mostwatched history series, american experience brings to life the incredible characters and epic stories that helped form this nation. Orphan train is a book set in both the present day and the late 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s. One of the books protagonists, an irish orphan, is packed onto a train and sent to the midwest. Orphan trains that brought homeless nyc children to work on. Between 1854 and 1929, more than 100,000 children were sent, via orphan trains, to new homes in rural america. Jun 12, 2019 the orphan train movement transported orphaned and homeless children from crowded eastern cities of the united states to foster homes located in rural areas of the midwest. The orphan trains dvd, 2006, closed caption for sale online. The childrens aid society sent the children on trains to rural areas, where families would take in the orphans. Charles loring brace founded the childrens aid society in order to help these children.
The national orphan train complex in concordia, ks is a museum and research center dedicated to the orphan train movement, the various institutions that participated, and the children and agents who rode the trains. An american oliver twist novel inspired by family stories about my grandfather, an orphan train rider. Smoky hills public television examines this period of mass relocation of children in the united states, widely recognized as the beginning of documented fost. Why and how the orphan trains originated, and how they began the foster care system we know today. At least 100,000 possibly as many as 250,000 children were transported in this manner. You might get a copy of the book and then contact dr. May 23, 2014 information about orphan trains and the book, orphan train by christina baker kline. In real life, orphan trains were intended to save children from the streets, but sometimes resulted in nearslavery. Many arkansans can trace their roots to children who were relocated to arkansas. Novel follows the orphan train to minnesota minnpost. Orphan train by christina baker kline plot summary litcharts. The orphan trains american experience american experience. They were all written up in the same record books and, on the whole. American experience the orphan trains tv episode 1995.
They take niamh to the childrens aid society, and the agency sends niamh out to the midwest on an orphan train. Jan 21, 2015 rich in detail and epic in scope, orphan train by christina baker kline is a powerful novel of upheaval and resilience, of unexpected friendship, and of the secrets we carry that keep us from finding out who we are. The orphan train movement was a supervised welfare program that transported children from. After exploring several of the websites, complete one or more of the following activities. This is a very interesting documentary and i have watched it several times. Orphan train hancock county historical society illinois. Teachers guide american experience official site pbs. In spite of some issues with the program, the orphan trains were, by and large, a success, and the children who traveled on them benefited from the new lives they were given. His next novel, thomas jefferson dreams of sally hemings, will be released this spring. However, i was not aware of the parallel story with molly, the foster child. Brace wrote a book about his experiences in germany and then.
The orphan trains ran from 1854 to 1929, delivering an estimated 250,000 orphaned or abandoned children to new homes. This american experience documentary follows the stories of minister charles loring brace, the founder of the childrens aid society, and of. Just type orphan train in the search box and enjoy the results. Then, when i heard about this book, i knew i had to read it. The childrens birthplaces were mostly new york and i wondered how they ended up here. Young minister charles loring brace founded the childrens aid society, sending orphans west to begin new lives with farm families.
When the orphan train movement began, it was estimated that 30,000 abandoned. Christina baker klines orphan train is an unforgettable story of friendship and second chances that highlights a littleknown but historically significant movement in americas pastand it includes a special ps section for book clubs featuring insights, interviews, and more penobscot indian molly ayer is close to aging out out of the foster care system. There are some orphan train children still alive today, from the later days of the program, and they can tell the true stories of the orphan train experience. Alison moore riders on the orphan train is a novel about a little known piece of american history. Othsafounded in 1986 in springdale washington and benton countiespreserves the history of the orphan train era, a period when thousands of children were relocated across the country. Jan 30, 2019 between 1854 and 1929 the united states was engaged in an ambitious, and ultimately controversial, social experiment to rescue poor and homeless children, the orphan train movement. Book on immigrants, orphans, orphanages and the orphan trains.
Series american experience program orphan trains program number. Between 1854 and 1929, socalled orphan trains transported more than 200,000 orphaned, abandoned, and homeless children many of them firstgeneration irish catholic. In albans, minnesota, niamh is taken home by lois and raymond byrne. Vivian traveled from nyc to minnesota as a young girl on one of the infamous orphan trains that was used to get orphans out of the cities into the country where they might have a better opportunity to find families and to be able to make a good life. Orphan train by christina baker kline book club discussion. The orphan trains dvd,in 1853, 10,000 homeless children roamed new york city streets. I knew going in that it was about a girl on the orphan trains. Information about the american experience documentary. Easier beginning in 1854, for seventysix years thousands of homeless, neglected poor children from new york city were moved west to rural towns and farm communities. There is a book, the great arizona orphan abduction by linda gordon. In the 1850s, thousands of homeless children roamed new york city streets in search of food and shelter. Rich in detail and epic in scope, orphan train by christina baker kline is a powerful novel of upheaval and resilience, of unexpected friendship, and of the secrets we carry that keep us from finding out who we are. From 1853 to 1928 over 150,000 orphans were rescued from the streets of new york and sent to 47 states by train.
Patricks book orphan trains to missouri missouri heritage readers published by university of missouri category. A quarter million children rode the orphan trains from 1854 to 1929. Watch the orphan trains american experience official. The story of orphaned innercity children shipped to rural locations and new lives as part of a social engineering experiment.
Jul 29, 2015 his book, orphan trains, is a nonfiction account of the more than 250,000 children sent from american cities to the west from about 1854 up to about 1929. Homeless at the age of four, he found an extraordinary path through nine decades of u. The orphan train, as it came to be known, ran from 18531929. The story of this ambitious and finally controversial effort to rescue poor and homeless children begins in the 1850s, when thousands of. Easytoread, compelling text explores the history of the childrens aid society and the development of the brace school, lodging houses, and industrial schools, the conditions that led to child abandonment in the 1800s, problems with institutional care and child labor laws, the roles the civil war, the great. The orphan trains operated between 1853 and 1929, relocating about 200,000 orphaned, abandoned, or homeless children.
The orphan trains narrated by stacy keach pbs home video american experience c1995. Read excerpts from orphan train rider by andrea warren to introduce students to the story of lee nailling. Orphan trains pbs the american experience click here to read the orphan trains program transcript full title. Watch the orphan trains american experience official site. Kansas state historical society in the beginning of the orphan train movement, the trains that took children across country were little better than cattle cars and only had makeshift bathroom facilities. Litcharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in orphan train, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work. Between 1854 and 1929, an estimated 200,000 or more homeless and. It was believed that he traveled on an orphan train from new york to jamestown, north dakota with his four siblings when he was ten years old. Aug 18, 2018 the orphan train by christina baker kline moves back and forth between two stories that of a young orphan girl in the early twentieth century and that of a teenager in the modernday foster care system. They started their journey in new york and were given away in train stations in every state in the continental united states.
When the orphan train movement began, it was estimated that 30,000 abandoned children were living on the streets of new york city. A lovely novel about the search for family that also happens to illuminate a fascinating and forgotten chapter of american history. From 1854 to the early 1930s, the american orphan trains transported 250,000 children from the streets and orphanages of the east coast into homes in the emerging west. In 1853, 10,000 homeless children roamed new york city streets. In the course of researching this family lore, i found that although orphan trains did, in fact, stop in jamestown, and orphans from these trains were adopted there, the robertson clan came from missouri.
The orphan trains from 1853 to 1928 over 150,000 orphans were rescued from the streets of new york and sent to 47 states by train. With stacy keach, charles loring brace iv, matt carlson, dan desmond. American experience the orphan trains tv episode 1995 imdb. In orphan train, christina baker kline seamlessly knits together the past and present of two women, one young and one old.
72 1702 1707 1589 639 808 1262 976 1423 589 1081 70 1421 1555 232 760 706 34 83 715 1077 811