New York CityOrphan train movementUp to 30,000 homeless children in one city, in peacetime. Where were their parents?From 1854 to 1929 the trains moved about 200,000 children. In 1850 there were an estimated 10,000 to 30,000 homeless children in New York City alone.
Photo: Unknown photographer · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons
Orphan Trains · Reggio Emilia, Italy (approx.)
Treni della felicità, Italy
The open question
70,000 children moved by train after a war. Big events and child trains seem to go together. Does that pattern hold in the 1800s too?
On the record
The treni della felicità ('trains of happiness') was a post-war initiative by the Italian Communist Party (PCI) and the Unione donne italiane (UDI), whereby 70,000 impoverished children from southern Italy were transported to northern Italy between 1945 and 1952 to be hosted by families that could support them. == History == The initiative was conceived by Teresa Noce and the Unione donne italiane (Italian Women's Union, UDI), and was promoted by the Italian Communist Party (PCI). On 16 December 1945, the first train departed from Milan and travelled to Reggio Emilia, carrying 1,800 children.
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Sources
More from Orphan Trains
New York CityOrphan train movementUp to 30,000 homeless children in one city, in peacetime. Where were their parents?From 1854 to 1929 the trains moved about 200,000 children. In 1850 there were an estimated 10,000 to 30,000 homeless children in New York City alone.
Dowagiac, MichiganFirst orphan train stop, DowagiacA train of children shows up and families pick them at the station. Who checked where they went?In 1854 Dowagiac was the final stop for the first group of orphans brought west from New York; children were dropped off and taken in at the depot.
Concordia, KansasNational Orphan Train ComplexChildren stood on a stage and said their names. How many lost those names afterwards?A museum in the restored Union Pacific depot. Some children were walked from the depot into a playhouse and put on stage, said by the museum to be the origin of 'up for adoption'.
New York CityChildren's Aid SocietyBusinessmen paid to send city children to farms. Who needed the labour, and who gained?Founded in 1853 by Charles Loring Brace with money from New York businessmen; one of the three charities behind the orphan trains.