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"Migrant Mother," by Dorothea Lange

Object Details

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
Data Source
National Museum of American History
maker
Lange, Dorothea
date made
1936
Physical Description
paper (overall material)
Object Name
photograph

Featured In

  • American Women Photographers and Selected Works
  • Picturing Motherhood
Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California, by Dorothea Lange for FSA, 1936
There are restrictions for re-using this image. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page .
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