Between 1854 and 1929 an estimated 200,000 orphaned, abandoned, and homeless children were placed out during, what is known today as, the Orphan Train Movement. The name is derived from the children's situations, though they were not all orphans, and the mode of transportation used to move them across forty-seven states and Canada.
When the orphan train movement began, it was estimated that 30,000 abandoned children were living on the streets of New York City.
Two charity institutions, The Children's Aid Society and The New York Foundling Hospital,determined to help these children.
The aid institutions developed a program that placed homeless children into homes throughout the country. The children were transported to their new homes on trains which were eventually labeled “orphan trains.”
This period of mass relocation of children in the United States is widely recognized as the beginning of documented foster care in America.
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