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Bison Books

Orphan Trains: Placing Out in America

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Title
Title: Orphan Trains: Placing Out in America
Author: Marilyn Irvin Holt
ISBN: 9780803272651
Publisher: Bison Books
Published: 1994
Binding: Paperback
Language: English
Edition: Reprint
Number of Pages: 264
Publisher Description: "From 1850 to 1930 America witnessed a unique emigration and resettlement of at least 200,000 children and several thousand adults, primarily from the East Coast to the West. This 'placing out, ' an attempt to find homes for the urban poor, was best known by the 'orphan trains' that carried the children. Holt carefully analyzes the system, initially instituted by the New York Children's Aid Society in 1853, tracking its imitators as well as the reasons for its creation and demise. She captures the children's perspective with the judicious use of oral histories, institutional records, and newspaper accounts. This well-written volume sheds new light on the multifaceted experience of children's immigration, changing concepts of welfare, and Western expansion. It is good, scholarly social history."-Library Journal Marilyn Irvin Holt, former director of publications at the Kansas State Historical Society; is a freelance editor, writer, and researcher and teaches historical editing at the University of Kansas.