American Experience - The Orphan Trains
List Price:
Our Price: $12.37
You Save: $12.61 (50%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Category: DVD
See more DVD details
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD details
Artist: Artist Not ProvidedDVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 60 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-06-13
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: PBS (Direct)
DVD Reviews of American Experience - The Orphan Trains
DVD Review: Fascinating Glimpse into the Lives of Orphan Train Children
Summary: 5 Stars
I had a general idea of the orphan trains that carried New York City street children to the midwest for placement with farm families. This documentary shows photos of the children and bits of interviews with now elderly men and women who lived through this experience. Each one gives their experience, good and bad, so gradually a picture emerges of what it was like to be a young child taken into a strange home, not knowing if they will be part of the family or just treated as a slave to work for the family. The glimpses into their lives was touching.
This gives a pretty good overview of the Children's Aid Society and the orphan trains that changed the lives 100,000 children. Quite a good documentary, very watchable.
DVD Review: Orphan Train DVD
Summary: 5 Stars
I am a Special Education Teacher of high school age students. I used this DVD as a concrete learning tool after we had read in the textbook about this event happening in our country many years ago. This movie is of such high quality that it helped my students realize that these young people really existed and how they felt going through this experience. In turn, my students also realized how fortunate they are to have their own families that love them and take care of them. Many very important life lessons are taught in this film. My students were so quiet and focused while viewing this film. They also learned about how our society has progressed and how much better children are cared for in this country at this time. They also learned the skill about caring for others who can't take care of themselves. I highly recommend this film to all Social Studies teachers. It is one of the important success stories of our country and how conditions for children have greatly improved. Frances PalmerDVD Review: American Experience,documentary
Summary: 5 Stars
Wonderful historical documentary .For those who are descendants of children of The Orphan Trains,this will be personally important.
Affordable,prompt,reliable service.
DVD Review: the remarkable story of the orphan trains and the children who rode them
Summary: 4 Stars
American Experience - The Orphan Trains tells the story of how The Children's Aid Society was formed in 1853 to help poor and often homeless children in New York City get a better life by sending them on long train rides to more rural parts of our nation. It was thought that if the children could escape the city they would have a better chance at a happy, normal life. We see how Charles Loring Brace founded the society when the only help available for children was a type of "orphan asylum" in which the children were taught skills so that they could earn money.
Brace desperately wanted a better way to help these children; he and his peers did not believe that the orphan asylums were teaching skills valuable enough to truly help the children. This program changed the lives of so many children--between 1853 and 1929, more than 150,000 abandoned, abused and orphaned children were taken from a life of poverty usually while living on the streets and begging for money, and sent, more often than not, to relatively stable homes where they could have a much better sense of family.
On the down side, however, children were essentially rounded up (the film doesn't say exactly how) and sent forcibly to other parts of the country by train where they hopefully had a real chance at a better childhood. Of course there's more to the story but I don't want to spoil it for you so I'll leave the rest out. You can rest assured that if this topic interests you, you won't be bored watching this film!
The real electricity of the film comes from invaluable interview footage in which now elderly people who rode orphan trains tell their most personal stories about their experiences both good and bad. The emotions these people display truly moved me and I could see that in some ways The Children's Aid Society had helped some while it had been insensitive to the emotional needs of other children.
The DVD comes with few extras; there is a type of advertisement for other features of the Public Broadcasting System website but unfortunately that's about it. However, this film is so good I can overlook it. Another reviewer mentions the fact that the photos and stories of these children are about white children only--what happened to African-American children and children of other races? I would have liked to know.
American Experience-The Orphan Trains is quite a powerful story and I recommend this for anyone interested in this topic.
DVD Review: The Orphan Trains
Summary: 5 Stars
This was an amazing look at life in the late 1800's to early 1900's. My Grandfather was one of those orphans. He died before I was born, so I never got to meet him, but felt a connection with him while watching this DVD. It gave me a sense of what he must have gone through during his early life, and an appreciation of his adoptive parents, whom I also didn't know. They provided a good home for him, and a stable environment for him to grow up in. My Mother told me that he had been adopted, but I'm not sure she even knew the circumstances. A distant cousin recently told me about it. Thank you so much for providing this DVD.
Description of American Experience - The Orphan Trains
Studio: Pbs Release Date: 05/04/2009 Run time: 60 minutesGeneral DVDs
DVD Video
- Action & Adventure
- African American Cinema
- Animation
- Anime & Manga
- Art House & International
- Classics
- Comedy
- Cult Movies
- Documentary
- Drama
- Educational
- Fitness & Yoga
- Gay & Lesbian
- Horror
- Kids & Family
- Military & War
- Music Video & Concerts
- Musicals & Performing Arts
- Mystery & Suspense
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Special Interests
- Sports
- Television
- Westerns
Bestsellers in General DVDs
Baseball - A Film By Ken BurnsTeam Marketing; Release date: 2004-09-28; DVD
Best price: $60.20
Price in other shops:
The History Channel Presents The RevolutionA&E HOME VIDEO; Release date: 2006-12-19; DVD
Best price: $17.24
Price in other shops:
The Guild: Seasons 1 & 2New Video; Release date: 2009-09-29; DVD
Best price: $10.36
Price in other shops:
ReligulousLIONS GATE HOME ENT.; Release date: 2009-02-17; DVD
Best price: $7.26
Price in other shops:
The First World War - The Complete SeriesIMAGE ENTERTAINMENT; Release date: 2005-08-30; DVD
Best price: $17.87
Price in other shops:
The Civil War - A Film by Ken BurnsPARAMOUNT HOME VIDEO; Release date: 2004-09-28; DVD
Best price: $34.86
Price in other shops:
America: The Story of UsRelease date: 2010-09-14; DVD
Best price: $27.99
Price in other shops:
Planet Earth: The Complete BBC SeriesWarner Brothers; Release date: 2007-04-24; DVD
Best price: $22.84
Price in other shops:
Food, Inc.MAGNOLIA PICT HM ENT; Release date: 2009-11-03; DVD
Best price: $10.35
Price in other shops:
The World at War (30th Anniversary Edition)A&E; Release date: 2004-08-24; DVD
Best price: $34.06
Price in other shops:
Similar DVDs, VHS Video, Audio CDs
Riding the RailsRelease date: 2003-02-25; DVD
Best price: $8.98
Price in other shops:
American Experience: The Great War 1918Release date: 2006-01-03; DVD
Best price: $8.98
Price in other shops:
A Family Apart (Orphan Train Adventures)by Joan Lowery Nixon
Laurel Leaf; Published: 1995-12-18; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.85
Price in other shops:
![Orphan Train [VHS] Image](/images/Orphan-Train-VHS-6301118413-X.jpg){kind=small}
Orphan Train [VHS]Inspired Corporation; Release date: 1994-11-08; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $79.90
ORPHAN TRAINS TO MISSOURI (MISSOURI HERITAGE READERS)by MICHAEL D. PATRICK, Evelyn Goodrich Trickel
University of Missouri; Published: 1997-08-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.95
Price in other shops:
Train to Somewhereby Eve Bunting
Sandpiper; Published: 2000-04-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.61
Price in other shops:
Orphan Trains: The Story of Charles Loring Brace and the Children He Saved and Failedby Stephen O'Connor
University Of Chicago Press; Published: 2004-03-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.95
Price in other shops:
Orphan Train Rider: One Boy's True Storyby Andrea Warren
Sandpiper; Published: 1998-09-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.60
Price in other shops:
The Orphan Trains: Placing Out in America (Bison Book)by Marilyn Irvin Holt
Bison Books; Published: 1994-02-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.65
Price in other shops:
We Rode the Orphan Trainsby Andrea Warren
Sandpiper; Published: 2004-03-23; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.57
Price in other shops: