All Aboard: Examining the Orphan Trains exhibit opening

On Friday, January 21, the Cherokee Strip Regional Heritage Center (CSRHC) will open the exhibit All Aboard: Examining the Orphan Trains. The exhibit explores the history of orphan trains that brought orphaned children from the overpopulated cities in the eastern United States, out to northwestern Oklahoma, across the Great Plains and beyond, during the latter half of the nineteenth century.

This special exhibit opening takes place during the CSRHC’s monthly Museum After Dark event. A Behind-the-Scenes tour will take place with a special presentation by the Curator of Collections Amy Johnson about the making of the exhibit.

A live performance and presentation by Phil Lancaster and Alison Moore are also planned for the event. The one-hour multimedia program combines live music, a video montage with archival photographs and interviews of survivors, and a dramatic reading of the 2012 novel Riders on the Orphan Train by award-winning author Alison Moore. The program, supported by Oklahoma Humanities, is the official outreach program of the National Orphan Train Complex Museum and Research Center based in Concordia, KS. Their mission is to raise awareness and preserve stories about the orphan train movement.