FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Event: Riders on the Orphan Train
Place: Temple Railroad and Heritage Museum
315 W. Avenue B
Temple , Texas 76501
Date: Saturday, October 22, 2011
Time: 2:00 p.m.
Contact: Judy Covington
254.298.5194
Free—Open to the Public—For General Audiences of all ages
Co-sponsor for this event is the Temple Public Library .
Between 1854 and 1929 over 250,000 orphans and unwanted children were taken out of New
York City and given away at train stations across America . The last train came to Sulphur
Springs, Texas in 1929. This “placing out” system was originally organized by Congregationalist
Minister Charles Loring Brace and the Children’s Aid Society of New York. His mission was to
rid the streets and overcrowded orphanages of homeless children and provide them with an
opportunity to find new homes in the developing Midwest . Many of the children were not
orphans but “surrendered” by parents too impoverished to keep them. This nearly eighty year
experiment in child migration is filled with the entire spectrum of human emotion and reveals a
great deal about the successes and failures of the American Dream. Through literature, music,
archival photographs, film interviews, informal lecture and audience discussion this virtually
untold chapter in American history comes alive. The one-hour multi media program including
music, video and a dramatic reading of a novel in progress by award-winning author Alison
Moore. Although the program is about children it is designed to engage audiences of all ages.
Alison Moore, Humanities Scholar
Alison Moore, MFA, is a former Assistant Professor of English/Creative Writing in the MFA
Creative Writing Program at the University of Arizona and a current Humanities Scholar in
Texas. She lives in Austin and is completing a novel on the Orphan Trains with a grant from the
Texas Institute of Letters and the Dobie/Paisano Foundation of the University of Texas at
Austin. She is the author of three books, a new collection of short stories entitled The Middle of
Elsewhere ( Phoenix International/University of Arkansas Press 2006), Small Spaces between
Emergencies (Mercury House, 1992) one of the Notable Books of 1993 chosen by The
American Library Association, and a novel, Synonym for Love (Mercury House 1995). In 2004
she received the Katherine Ann Porter Prize for Fiction.
Phil Lancaster, Presenter/Audio-Visual Technician
Arkansas Arts on Tour musician Phil Lancaster (Professor Strings) was born in Texarkana and
studied art and music at L’Ecole De Beaux Arts in Angers , France . He became a member of a
bluegrass band that traveled and played throughout France and produced an album entitled
“Bluegrass Oldies Ltd./Traveling Show.” He also worked as a stage theatre technician for La
Coursive Theatre Nationale in La Rochelle , France . After returning to the U.S. he met three
Arkansas musicians and the acoustic quartet “Still on the Hill” was formed in Fayetteville . They
released their first CD in 1997, the second in 2000. The group performed at national and
international festivals. He currently lives in Austin and is a co-presenter of Riders on the Orphan
Train. In 2007 he received an Arkansas Arts Council fellowship for Music Composition.
“…the program far exceeded any expectations I may have had, as did the community’s
response…this was by far the most well-attended program the library has ever
offered….everyone who attended was moved, educated and entertained…your program truly
made an impact on our community.
--Cecilia Hurt Barham, Decatur Public Library, Decatur , TX
This program is made possible in part by a grant from Humanities Texas, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.