Novelist and humanities scholar Alison Moore and singer/songwriter Phil Lancaster will combine audiovisual elements, historical fiction and musical ballads that bring the Orphan Train movement to public awareness in programs Friday, Sept. 30, at the Coeur d’Alene Public Library, and Saturday, Oct. 1, at the Community Library Network, Post Falls. Both free programs begin at 6:30 p.m.
Orphan trains were a charitable movement that “placed out” 250,000 orphaned, abandoned, or homeless children between 1854 and 1929 to rural families in the American west.
The Coeur d’Alene library is at 702 E. Front Ave. and the Post Falls library is at 821 Spokane St.
These programs are made possible by grants from the Idaho Humanities Council, the state-based affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, with additional support from the Friends of the Coeur d’Alene Public Library and the Friends of the Community Library Network.
They are offered as part of North Idaho Reads (NIR), a community reading partnership involving three North Idaho counties. The books this year are about the include “Orphan Train” by Christina Baker Kline and “Riders on the Orphan Train” by Moore.
“Orphan Train” will be read by the Pageturners Library Book Club for its discussion on Oct. 26, at 10:15 a.m. Dr. Virginia Johnson, a member of the NIR Committee, will lead that discussion, which is open to any adult reader.
Copies of the book are available to check out at the Research and Information Desk at the Coeur d’Alene library for the book club. Additional copies will be also available at other libraries, as well as at local book stores.
The book is also scheduled to be read and discussed by the 3Cs Book Club.
A screening of the PBS American Experience documentary “Orphan Train” will be presented at 9 a.m., Saturday Oct. 1, at the Columbia Bank auditorium second floor, 414 Church Street in Sandpoint. At 10:30 a.m. there will be presentation by local train historian Aric Spence, “A History of Passenger Train Travel in Sandpoint.”
For details, contact the library or venue hosting a program.