Orphan Train

The Orphan Train Movement was a supervised welfare program that transported children from crowded Eastern cities of the United States to foster homes located in rural areas in the East, the Midwest and West short on farming labor. The orphan trains operated between 1854 and 1929, relocating about 200,000 children. Similar systems called Home Children run by churches brought poor children from London, England, to farms and ranches in Canada and Australia.

The co-founders of the orphan train movement claimed that these children were orphaned, abandoned, abused, or homeless, but this was not always true. They were mostly the children of new immigrants and the children of the poor and destitute families living in these cities. Criticisms of the program include ineffective screening of caretakers, insufficient follow-ups on placements, and that many children were used as slave labor.

Three charitable institutions—Children's Village (founded 1851 by 24 philanthropists), the Children's Aid Society (established 1853 by Charles Loring Brace) and later, New York Foundling Hospital—endeavored to move these children. The institutions were supported by wealthy donors and operated by professional staff. The three institutions developed a program that placed homeless, orphaned, and abandoned city children, who numbered an estimated 30,000 in New York City alone in the 1850s, in foster homes throughout the country. The children were transported to their new homes on trains that were labeled "orphan trains" or "baby trains".