Media History: Orphan Train Research

The final assignment in JAMS 430, Media History, was an extensive writing project designed to show that we had learned how to go about conducting media history research.

For the project, students had to draft their own question about media’s part in an issue or event during the years between 1700 and 1974 and then embark on a fact-finding journey to answer that question in a 3,500-word research paper.

Because of my interest in issues related to adoption and foster care, I researched the media’s role in the Children’s Aid Society’s work placing 120,000 orphaned and abandoned inner city children in country homes from 1853 to 1929.