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The Orphan Train Movement: Examining 19th Century Childhood Experiences, Sophie Goldsmith
The Orphan Train Movement: Examining 19th Century Childhood Experiences, Sophie Goldsmith
Senior Theses and Projects
This project examines orphan trains and the movement's reverberating effects on the United States more closely. Founded by Reverend Charles Loring Brace, the orphan train program aimed to challenge the “greatest evil[s] of our city life” – migration, overpopulation, and poverty - through removing at risk youth from their urban residences.[1] Focused solely on impoverished and orphaned youths, the orphan train progam assisted in approximately 200,000 placements between 1853 and 1929, making it the largest child resettlement initiative in American history.[2]
[1] Thomas Bender. Towards an Urban Vision.(Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1982), 151.
[2] Stephen O'Connor, …