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.
"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
"Soon there will be no memories of the ‘little companies,’ as they
were called, of children setting out with an adult leader for a new
life. This little book is kind of a preservation movement, and a
contribution to our understanding of how the West was won."—David
Shribman, Wall Street Journal
"As a portrait of the time's charitable networks, The Orphan Trains
succeeds. . . . [Holt's] work brings to light a meaningful concept:
the idea that charity; then and now, is sometimes tinged with
greed, indifference, hostility, self-promotion and is an
institution that can serve the giver more than the receiver."—David
James Rose, Washington Times
"This book should be interesting to anyone interested in the social
structure, the social conditions, and the good intentions of the
various placing out organizations. The author has done an excellent
job of bringing all of these facets of the placing out theory and
its process to light."—John L. Niehaus, Villager
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