Dorothea Collection (#5)

MIGRANT FAMILY, 1939. A migrant family living in a rural shack community on outskirts of town, Near Klamath Falls, Oregon. Photograph by Dorothea Lange, September 1939

FARM FAMILY, 1939. A family gathering debris, roots and chunks from the field to the stump pile for burning in Thurston County, Michigan Hill, Washington State

FOOD STAND, 1939. A migrant hop picker and her two children at the window of a food stand after payday in Josephine County, near Grants Pass, Oregon. Photograph by Dorothea Lange, August 1939

DEPUTY SHERIFF, 1939. A deputy sheriff stationed at the paymasters window for migrant workers on a large hop farm in Josephine County, near Grants Pass, Oregon

FARMHOUSE, 1939. An African American sharecroppers farmhouse in Person County, North Carolina. Photograph by Dorothea Lange, July 1939

SHARECROPPER, 1939. The wife and child of a tobacco sharecropper inside their farm home in Person County, North Carolina. Photograph by Dorothea Lange, July 1939

FARM RELIEF, 1939. Migrant farmers standing outside the Farm Security Administration grant office during the pea harvest in Calipatria, California. Photograph by Dorothea Lange, February 1939

MIGRANT FAMILY, 1939. An ex-tenant farmer from Oklahoma with his wife and ten children standing in front of their tent at an emergency migrant camp for drought refugees in Brawley, Imperial Valley

MIGRANT CAMP, 1939. An ex-tenant farmer from Oklahoma with four of his eleven children in an emergency migrant camp for drought refugees in Brawley, Imperial Valley, California

COMMERCIAL FARMING, 1939. A large scale carrot farm in Imperial Valley, California using gang laborers and migrant workers including children from the southwest to pull, clean

GEORGIA: TOBACCO, 1938. An African American sharecropper sitting on the porch sorting tobacco leaves near Douglas, Georgia. Photograph by Dorothea Lange, July 1938

MIGRANT WORKER, 1938. A young African American wife cooking breakfast roadside on the outskirts of El Paso, Texas. Photograph by Dorothea Lange, June 1938

MIGRANT WORKERS, 1938. Two African American migrant cotton choppers in Memphis, Tennessee hoping for plantation work. Photograph by Dorothea Lange, June 1938

DROUGHT REFUGEE, 1936. Drought refugees traveling on U. S. Highway 99 between Bakersfield and Famoso, California
DROUGHT REFUGEE, 1936. Drought refugees traveling on U.S. Highway 99 between Bakersfield and Famoso, California. Photograph by Dorothea Lange, 1936

DUST BOWL, 1935. A farmer in the middle of a dust storm on his farm in Mills, New Mexico. Photograph by Dorothea Lange, April 1935

MIGRANT CAMP, 1939. A daughter and son of an ex-tenant farmer from Oklahoma living in an emergency camp for migrant workers in Imperial Valley, Calipatria, California

COMMERCIAL FARMING, 1939. A large scale lettuce farm in Salinas Valley, California. Photograph by Dorothea Lange, February 1939

MIGRANT AUTOMOBILE, 1936. An automobile in New Mexicio, carrying the belongings of a homeless migrant family from Iowa. Photograph by Dorothea Lange, August 1936

DUST BOWL, 1938. A farm eroded by dust storms as a result of overgrazing, north of Dalhart, Texas. Photograph by Dorothea Lange, June 1938

MIGRANT WORKERS, 1936. Migrant workers from Delaware picking berries in southern New Jersey. Photograph by Dorothea Lange, June 1936

COTTON HOERS, 1937. A group of migrant cotton hoers walking to work on a cotton plantation, near Clarksdale, Mississippi. Photograph by Dorothea Lange, June-July 1937

COTTON PICKER, 1937. A migrant boy with a sack of boll weevils that he picked off of cotton plants in Macon County, Georgia. Photograph by Dorothea Lange, July 1937

COTTON PLANTATION, 1937. A crew 200 African American migrant workers brought to the Aldridge Plantation to hoe cotton for one dollar a day, near Leland, Mississippi

TEXAS: HIGHWAY, 1938. U. S. Highway 54, one of the westward routes used by migrant workers
TEXAS: HIGHWAY, 1938. U.S. Highway 54, one of the westward routes used by migrant workers, north of El Paso, Texas. Photograph by Dorothea Lange, June 1938

TEXAS: DUST BOWL, 1938. An abandoned farm in the Coldwater District, north of Dalhart, Texas. Photograph by Dorothea Lange, June 1938

COTTON PLANTATION, 1937. The Touchberry Plantation using the check-row planting method which permits cross cultivation and eliminates as much as two thirds of the usual hand hoeing costs in Issaquena

MEMPHIS: UNEMPLOYED, 1938. Job applicants waiting outside the office of the State Employment Service in Memphis
MEMPHIS: UNEMPLOYED, 1938. Part of the daily lineup of unemployed men waiting outside the office of the State Employment Service in Memphis, Tennessee. Photographed by Dorothea Lange, June 1938

HOMELESS COUPLE, 1935. Dispossessed Arkansas farmers constructing a shelter on a garbage dump outside of Bakersfield, California. Photograph by Dorothea Lange, 1935

SHARECROPPER, 1939. A wife of a sharecropper standing in the kitchen doorway of her log house in North Carolina. Photograph by Dorothea Lange, July 1939

TEXAS: FARM WIFE, 1937. Wife of a Texas tenant farmer hoeing soil on rented farmland. Photograph by Dorothea Lange, May 1937

MIGRANT WORKERS, 1935. Filipino migrant workers cutting lettuce on a farm in Salinas, California. Photograph by Dorothea Lange, June 1935

FARM BOY, 1937. Twelve year-old son of a cotton sharecropper near Cleveland, Mississippi. Photograph by Dorothea Lange, June 1937

MIGRANT WORKERS, 1937. Carrot pullers from Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas and Mexico working from seven in the morning until twelve noon for 35 cents in Coachella Valley, California

EMPLOYMENT OFFICE, 1937. Job applicants waiting outside the International Employment Agency on Howard Street in San Francisco, known as Skid Row, the district of the unemployed

CHILD LABOR, 1939. A young migrant bean picker in Marion County, Oregon. Photograph by Dorothea Lange, August 1939

MIGRANT WORKER, 1937. A Mexican migrant worker thinning and weeding cantaloupe plants that are capped with wax paper and spread over a wire wicket to protect against cold

IDAHO: FARMER, 1939. A farmer and son cleared thirty acres of raw stump land in three years at Bonner County, Idaho. Photograph by Dorothea Lange, October 1939

IDAHO: FARM, 1939. A farm for sale in Boundary County, Idaho with sandy soil which has led to unsuccessful clearing by four families that occupied the land since 1936

CHILD LABOR, 1939. An eleven-year-old migrant boy and his grandmother work side by side picking hops during the summer with temperatures reaching 105 degrees and above in Polk County

FARM WOMAN, 1939. A farmers wife and member of the congregation of Wheeleys church in Gordonton, North Carolina. Photograph by Dorothea Lange, July 1939

FARM GIRL, 1938. An undernourished cotton pickers child listening to speeches of organizers at a cotton strike meeting to raise wages in Kern County, California

MIGRANT CAMP, 1939. A family in the doorway of a tent in a camp for migrant workers in Brawley, Imperial Valley, California. Photograph by Dorothea Lange, February 1939

MIGRANT FARMER, 1935. A migrant family from Texas traveling to Oregon through California on U.S. Highway 99. Photograph by Dorothea Lange, March 1935

MIGRANT BABY, 1939. A baby from Mississippi parked in a truck at a camp for migrant workers in Merrill, Klamath County, Oregon. Photograph by Dorothea Lange, October 1939

MIGRANT WORKERS, 1938. An African American family being moved from Arkansas to the Mississippi Delta by a Caucasian tenant farmer on Mississippi U.S. Highway No. 1 between Greenville and Clarksdale

IRRIGATION, 1939. A tenant farmer irrigating his small corn field with buckets of water in Grays Harbor County, Washington State. Photograph by Dorothea Lange, August 1939

MIGRANT WORKER, 1936. A young girl harvesting cherries with local families, near Millville, New Jersey. Photograph by Dorothea Lange, June 1936

MIGRANT CHILD, 1936. A young cotton picker holding a blanket at a camp for migrant workers in Kern County, California. Photograph by Dorothea Lange, November 1936

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"Dorothea: Capturing the Stories of Struggle and Resilience" In 1936, Dorothea Lange embarked on a journey to document the lives of those affected by the Great Depression. One iconic photograph from her Migrant Mother series encapsulates the hardships faced by Florence Thompson, a 32-year-old migrant worker and mother of seven, as she cradles her children in a camp for migrant workers in Nipomo, California. Through Lange's lens, we witness not only the exhaustion etched on Florence's face but also her unwavering determination to provide for her family. Lange's lens didn't just focus on individuals; it captured entire communities grappling with adversity. In 1939, she turned her attention to Lincoln Bench School where young girls diligently studied their reading lesson amidst challenging circumstances. These schoolchildren symbolize hope and resilience despite facing uncertain futures. The photographer's work extended beyond capturing people struggling during economic crises; she also documented social issues plaguing society at large. In August 1939, Lange photographed an unemployed lumberjack with his wife in a migrant workers camp during the bean harvest in Marion County, Oregon. The man's social security number tattooed on his arm serves as a haunting reminder of how deeply poverty can affect one's identity. While "Dorothea" may evoke thoughts of other notable figures like Dorothea Douglass Lambert Chambers or Dorothy Jordan (1762-1816), it is this particular Dorothea Lange who left an indelible mark through her powerful images that shed light on human struggles across time and place. From Texas to Memphis in 1937, Lange captured signs that told stories themselves - like that of a hotel sign standing tall against economic turbulence. Her photographs serve as visual testimonies to remind us all of our shared humanity amidst trying times. Beyond photography alone, "Dorothea" encompasses various facets of history and culture.