Legacy of the Plains Museum

Novelist and humanities scholar Alison Moore and singer/songwriter Phil Lancaster have combined audio visual elements, historical fiction and musical ballads into a collaborative performance that brings the Orphan Train movement, a largely-unknown chapter in American history, to public awareness. The presentation tells the story of the 250,000 orphans and unwanted children who were put on trains in New York between 1854 and 1929 and sent all over the United States to be given away. After the presentation, there is an informal discussion about the origin and demise of the largest child migration in history and the part it played in the formation of the American Dream. The human struggle to belong, to define one’s self in the place we call home is exemplified in the stories of these children that have shaped all of our lives. The presenters will take questions from the audience and will invite relatives and acquaintances of Orphan Train Riders to share their stories. Alison Moore, MFA, is a former Assistant Professor of English/Creative Writing in the MFA Creative Writing Program at the University of Arizona and a current Humanities Scholar. She lives in Austin and has been touring nationally since 1998 with the multi-media program “Riders on the Orphan Train” that is currently the official outreach program for the National Orphan Train Complex Museum and Research Center. She has also developed public outreach programs for the Orphan Train Heritage Society of America, Inc. and for ArtsReach, a Native American literacy project in Southern Arizona. She is the author of four books. She received two National Endowment for the Arts Fiction Fellowships in 1993 and 2010 and the Katherine Ann Porter Prize for Fiction in 2004. In 2007/2008 she received the J. Frank Dobie Paisano fellowship from the University of Texas at Austin and the Texas Institute of Letters. In 2012 she received the Charles Loring Brace Award for helping to preserve the stories of the Orphan Trains. Phil Lancaster was born in Texarkana, Arkansas and studied art and music at L’Ecole De Beaux Arts in Angers, France. He became a member of a bluegrass band that toured throughout France and produced an album entitled “Bluegrass Oldies Ltd./Traveling Show.” After returning to the U.S. he met three Arkansas musicians and the acoustic quartet “Still on the Hill” was formed in Fayetteville. They released their first CD in 1997, the second in 2000. The group performed at national and international folk festivals. In 2007 he received an Arkansas Arts Council Fellowship in Music Composition. He is co-producer of the documentary film “Gospel, Biscuits and Gravy” about Ozark gospel singer Ernestine Shepherd and presenter of “Riders on the Orphan Train,” the official outreach program for the National Orphan Train Complex.