"Orphan Trains in Kansas" at the Annual Meeting

NEWS RELEASE

Santa Fe Trail Center
1349 K-156 Hwy
Larned, KS 67550
620-285-2054

Release Date: Immediate
Date: November 3, 2011

Presentation Explores Orphan Trains in Kansas

Larned, KS – The Fort Larned Historical Society will host their Annual Meeting with a program, Orphan Trains in Kansas, a presentation and discussion by Marilyn J. Holt on Monday, November 14  at 7:00p.m. at the Santa Fe Trail Center Museum and Library. Members of the community are invited to attend the free program. Contact the Santa Fe Trail Center at 620-285-2054 for more information. The program is made possible by the Kansas Humanities Council.

     The “orphan trains” brought poor children from the eastern cities to rural Kansas from 1867 until the 1920s. Holt will share firsthand accounts of orphan train riders that challenge the picture of childhood in the “good old days.”

     Marilyn J. Holt is an independent historian who consults on Kansas history. Her publications include books on the orphan trains, rural women, Kansas teenagers, Indian orphanages, and children in the American West.

     Orphan Trains in Kansas is part of the Kansas Humanities Council’s Kansas 150 Speakers Bureau commemorating the Kansas sesquicentennial. The special edition Speakers Bureau features presentations and discussions about Kansas and what it means to be a Kansan over time and across generations.

     The Kansas Humanities Council conducts and supports community-based programs, serves as a financial resource through an active grant-making program, and encourages Kansans to participate in their communities. For more information about KHC programs contact the Kansas Humanities Council at 785-357-0359 or visit online at www.kansashumanities.org.

     For more information about the program Orphan Trains in Kansas contact the Santa Fe Trail Center, Larned, KS  at 620-285-2054 or visit www.santafetrailcenter.org.