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The Orphan Trains
- Available as
- Online
- Summary
-
Eighty years ago, Elliot Bobo was taken from his alcoholic father's home, given a small cardboard suitcase, and put on board an "orphan train" bound for Arkansas. Bobo never saw his father again. H...
Eighty years ago, Elliot Bobo was taken from his alcoholic father's home, given a small cardboard suitcase, and put on board an "orphan train" bound for Arkansas. Bobo never saw his father again. He was one of tens of thousands of neglected and orphaned children who roamed the streets of New York in search of money, food, and shelter. Beginning in 1853 a young minister named Charles Loring Brace founded the Children's Aid Society - an organization that sent orphans west to begin new lives with farm families. His program would turn out to be a forerunner of modern foster care. But as The Orphan Trains, from the PBS American Experience collection, so poignantly reveals, even those for whom the journey ultimately was a triumph found the transition from one life to another almost always painful, confusing, or more difficult than one might imagine.
Details
- Creator
- Public Broadcasting Service (U.S.)
- Included Title
-
- American experience (Television program)
- Format
- Videos, Slides, Films
- Language
- English
- Contributors
- Publication
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- New York, N.Y. : Films Media Group, [2011], c1995
- Series
- Physical Details
-
- 1 streaming video file (60 min.) : sd., col., digital file
- digital
- data file
- OCLC
- ocn773481297
- Access requires authentication through Films on Demand.
- Encoded with permission for digital streaming by Films Media Group on August 21, 2011.
- Films on Demand is distributed by Films Media Group for Films for the Humanities & Sciences, Cambridge Educational, Meridian Education, and Shopware.
- Mode of access: Internet.
- System requirements: FOD playback platform.
- Brief Introduction & Sponsors: The Orphan Trains (1:23) -- Ethel Lambert's Dream (2:11) -- "I am Tired of Singing" (0:41) -- Children's Aid Society (0:40) -- Adult Orphans Remember (1:16) -- Credits: The Orphan Trains (0:42) -- Leaving Everything Behind (1:16) -- New York's Street Children (3:22) -- Charles Loring Brace's Plan (2:32) -- "You're Going to Texas" (1:47) -- Riding the Orphan Train (1:12) -- Finding Comfort on the Orphan Train (2:45) -- Distributing Orphaned Children (2:57) -- Faith in the Kindness of Strangers (2:01) -- Kicking and Biting (1:57) -- "They Wanted a Slave" (2:36) -- Second Chances (2:24) -- Treatment of Fostered Children (3:07) -- Monitoring Child Placements (1:02) -- Success Stories (1:05) -- Bad Blood (3:00) -- Letters from Fostered Children (1:58) -- Orphaned Children Find Hope (2:28) -- Adoptive Parents' Perspective (2:01) -- Loneliness of Being an Orphan (1:54) -- Positive Effect of Fostering (2:55) -- Epilogue: The Orphan Trains (1:31) -- Credits & Sponsors: The Orphan Trains (2:11)