"Migrant Mother," by Dorothea Lange
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Object Details
- date made
- 1936
- maker
- Lange, Dorothea
- Description
- During the Great Depression, government photographer Dorothea Lange took this picture at a migrant farmworkers' camp near Nipomo, California. Lange's brief caption recorded her impressions of the family's plight: "Destitute pea pickers ... a 32-year-old mother of seven children."
- First published in a San Francisco newspaper, this poignant image became one of the most famous photographs of the Depression era, emblematic of the hardships suffered by poor migrant families. The "migrant mother," anonymous for many years, was later identified as Oklahoma native Florence Thompson.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Place Made
- United States: California
- related event
- Great Depression
- See more items in
- Work and Industry: Photographic History
- Government, Politics, and Reform
- National Treasures exhibit
- Photography
- Related Publication
- Sewer, Andy; Allison, David; Liebhold, Peter; Davis, Nancy; Franz, Kathleen G.. American Enterprise: A History of Business in America
- National Museum of American History. Treasures of American History online exhibition
- Related Web Publication
- https://americanhistory.si.edu/explore/exhibitions/treasures-american-history
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
- ID Number
- 1983.0069.07
- accession number
- 1983.0069
- catalog number
- 83.69.7
- Object Name
- photograph
- Physical Description
- paper (overall material)
- Metadata Usage
- CC0
- Record ID
- nmah_1313354