Film & discussion with Mike Keene
January 29, 2025 @ 1:00 p.m.
Held at NYM NYM Public Library
The New York Mills Regional Cultural Center in collaboration with the New York Mills Friends of the Library is pleased to present a film viewing and discussion with author Michael Keene on Wednesday, January 29, 2025 at 1:00 p.m.
Free and open to all, but preregistration is required: call the New York Mills Public Library (218) 385-2436 or go to www.nympubliclibrary.org.
Join us for an interesting and informative afternoon about the Orphan Trains that brought children from New York to Minnesota and other western states. Attendees will watch the film “Abandoned” and then author Mike Keene will join remotely to answer questions after the movie presentation.
This will be a unique hybrid event with history author, Michael Keene. The program explores the audacious relocation scheme which operated between 1854 and 1929, when an estimated 250,000 orphaned or abandoned children were transported west by train and placed in foster homes, mostly in rural mid-western areas, though there were several local placements. The premise now seems incredible, but it developed in response to a crisis in care for homeless children. Their stories are incredibly haunting and poignant.
Michael Keene Artist Bio
Michael T. Keene is the author of eight non-fiction books, nine local history videos, and an award-winning forty-episode podcast.
Although employed for twenty-five years as a financial advisor, Michael has combined his interests in writing, historical research, and filmmaking to explore unique and fascinating episodes of nineteenth-century history and stranger-than-life legends.
The events that bubbled out of this period include the orphan train phenomenon, the origins of the modern spiritualist movement, the women’s rights and abolitionist movements, as well as the founding of seven new religions and utopian communes.
Michael’s work also explores the history of the treatment of insanity, the building of the Erie Canal, and the hidden history of America’s largest mass graveyard.
What began as a hobby fifteen years ago has now become a glorious obsession!
All are welcome at this event. Questions? Call the Library at 218-385-2436 or the Cultural Center at 218-385-3339.
