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Orphan Trains of Illinois
The Orphan Trains placed children from the Eastern United States on farms in the Midwest States from 1851 until 1929. Click on the rectangle in the top right hand corner of the map to view the map full screen and larger photos. Click on the map tags to read about orphans placed in different locations. Letters are from the annual reports of the New York Juvenile Asylum. The year of each report is referenced in the tag. Search by orphan name in the full screen mode.
Sadly, my map has been lost in the maws of Google. I am trying to retrieve the map, but in the mean time, you can explore the map created by Clark Kidder at his website . His map details all the orphans sent by the New York Juvenile Asylum to all states, not just Illinois. Maybe one day my map will be restored. It had the location of Illinois orphan train riders and copies of their letters. If you want to read letters from the orphans go to the Hathi Trust and look for "New York Juvenile Asylum" to find the annual reports which contain the letters!