Photo Gallery: Forgotten Children Initiative

Triptych of photos from photo gallery, and icon of silhouetted teen over cinder block

Below you can find photos from the Maryland House of Reformation & Instruction for Colored Children Burial Site. You can find more photos and images in print articles and television segments in the News section, particularly this incredible photo essay published by the Intersection.

We also want to direct you toward this photo gallery of Maansi Srivastava, an Indian-American documentary photographer, photo editor, and professor focusing on widespread social issues through a lens of family and community.

aerial map of the House of Reformation site
Aerial Map of the Maryland House of Reformation & Instruction for Colored Children Burial Site

From the Maryland Historical Trust, February 2009
Maryland House of Reformation & Instruction for Colored Children Burial Site. Section 1, marker, looking east
Maryland House of Reformation & Instruction for Colored Children Burial Site. Section 1, marker, looking east

From the Maryland Historical Trust, February 2009
Woods, with leaf-covered ground, and scattered cinder blocks throughout peeking through
Maryland House of Reformation & Instruction for Colored Children Burial Site. Section 1, marker, Section 1, marker, looking North East

From the Maryland Historical Trust, February 2009
Headstone leaning against a tree
Maryland House of Reformation & Instruction for Colored Children Burial Site. Section 1, marker, Section 1, marker, looking South From the Maryland Historical Trust, February 2009
Leaf-covered ground, with cinder block peeking through
Maryland House of Reformation & Instruction for Colored Children Burial Site. Section 2 marker

From the Maryland Historical Trust, February 2009
Woods, with leaf-covered ground, and scattered cinder blocks throughout peeking through
Maryland House of Reformation & Instruction for Colored Children Burial Site. Section 2 marker, looking south
Two sunken gravestones sit in a wooded area near Cheltenham Youth Detention Center in Prince George's County, Maryland
Two sunken gravestones sit in a wooded area near Cheltenham Youth Detention Center in Prince George’s County, Maryland

From Wash Post story 7/17/25

(Caroline Gutman/For The Washington Post)
Marc Schindler, former assistant secretary and chief of staff of Maryland's Department of Juvenile Services, left, and Maryland state Sen. William C. Smith Jr. (D-Montgomery) survey the overgrown cemetery.
Marc Schindler, former assistant secretary and chief of staff of Maryland’s Department of Juvenile Services, left, and Maryland state Sen. William C. Smith Jr. (D-Montgomery) survey the overgrown cemetery.

From Wash Post story 7/17/25

(Caroline Gutman/For The Washington Post)
Headstone in vegetation covered ground
Grave of Asbury Brown

(photo by Marc Schindler)
Headstone in vegetation covered ground
Grave of Asbury Brown

(photo by Marc Schindler)
Headstone leaning against a tree
Headstone

(photo by Marc Schindler)
CInder block half in shade, sitting up in leaf-covered ground
Cinder block marker

(Photo by Marc Schindler)
Cinder block markers in the woods
CInder block markers

(Photo by Marc Schindler)
Photo clipping from the 1872 Afro, hand pointing to broken tombstone
From The Afro October 7, 1972
MD Delegate Troy Brailey visiting House of Reformation burial site
The Afro October 7, 1972, Page 1-2

MD Delegate Troy Brailey visiting House of Reformation burial site

(Photo taken by Fletcher Roberts)
Cinder block markers in the woods
CInder block markers

(Photo by Marc Schindler)
The Maryland Congressional Black Caucus stands at the edge of the field, looking at the burial site
Visit by Maryland Legislative Black Caucus – 9/23/25

(Photo by Marc Schindler)
The Maryland Congressional Black Caucus walks through the woods at the burial site
Visit by Maryland Legislative Black Caucus – 9/23/25

(Photo by Marc Schindler)