Charles Loring Brace

Born in Litchfield, Connecticut, in 1826, Charles Loring Brace became a Congregational minister and one of the early leaders of American child welfare. After studying at Yale and Yale Divinity School, he was deeply affected by the poverty he saw in New York City and turned his energy toward practical reform.

In 1853, he founded the Children’s Aid Society, an organization created to help homeless and poor children through schooling, lodging, work opportunities, and family placement. Brace believed children in desperate conditions needed stable homes and fresh chances, and his work became closely tied to the orphan train movement, which sent many children from crowded Eastern cities to live with families in the Midwest and elsewhere.

His ideas were influential and controversial at the same time. Supporters saw him as a pioneering advocate for children, while later critics questioned parts of the placement system and its long-term effects. Even so, Brace remains an important figure in the history of social reform in the United States, and his work helped shape later approaches to foster care and child protection.