Dorothea Collection (#8)

TRAILER HOME, 1939. A young girl standing in the doorway of the family trailer in Yakima Valley, Toppenish, Washington State. Photograph by Dorothea Lange, August 1939

HOMELESS FAMILY, 1939. A destitute farmer with his family seated beside railroad tracks after traveling by freight train to the Yakima Valley, Toppenish, Washington State

FARM CHILD, 1939. A tobacco sharecropper child playing with a burlap covered playhouse in Person County, North Carolina. Photograph by Dorothea Lange, July 1939

MAIN STREET SHOPPERS, 1939. African American men and women shopping and socializing on Main Street during a Saturday afternoon in Pittsboro, North Carolina. Photograph by Dorothea Lange, July 1939

OREGON: FARMING, 1939. Farm couple digging up their sweet potatoes during the harvest in Irrigon, Morrow County, Oregon. Photograph by Dorothea Lange, October 1939

PEA PICKERS, 1939. Idle pea pickers discussing prospects for work on a street corner in Calipatria, Imperial Valley, California. Photograph by Dorothea Lange, February 1939

BEAN VINES, 1938. A farm girl seated on a porch behind butter bean vines in Memphis, Tennessee. Photograph by Dorothea Lange, June 1938

SHARECROPPER, 1937. A homeless sharecropper. Photograph by Dorothea Lange, July 1937

SHARECROPPER FAMILY, 1937. A former sharecropper family traveling in a horse drawn carriage near Hazlehurst, Georgia. Photograph by Dorothea Lange, July 1937

AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMAN. An African American migrant worker under a parasol in Louisiana. Photograph by Dorothea Lange, July 1937

COTTON WORKER, 1937. An African American cotton hoer drinking a bottle of soda during lunchtime in the Mississippi Delta. Photograph by Dorothea Lange, June 1937

OKLAHOMA: FARM, 1937. An abandoned farm in Southwest Oklahoma. Photograph by Dorothea Lange, June 1937

UNEMPLOYED MIGRANT, 1937. Migrant worker from Chickasaw, Oklahoma with his stalled automobile on a desert road in Southern California. Photograph by Dorothea Lange, March 1937

CARROT PULLER, 1937. A carrot puller harvesting a field in the Coachella Valley, California. Photograph by Dorothea Lange, February 1937

MIGRANT HOUSING, 1936. Children playing in front of housing for migrant cotton workers near Corcoran, California. Photograph by Dorothea Lange, November 1936

COTTON PICKERS, 1936. Two migrant workers weighing sacks of cotton and recording the figures in a notebook in South Texas. Photograph by Dorothea Lange, August 1936

MIGRANT FAMILIES, 1936. Sharecroppers families gathering supplies for their 4th of July celebration, Hill House, Mississippi. Photograph by Dorothea Lange, July 1936

FARMER UNION LEADER, 1936. President of the Southern Tenant Farmers Union in Hill House, Mississippi. Photograph by Dorothea Lange, July 1936

COTTON PICKERS, 1937. Sharecroppers chopping cotton in Greene County, Georgia. Photograph by Dorothea Lange, June 1937

COTTON PICKER, 1936. A migrant worker picking cotton in Southern San Joaquin Valley, California. Photograph by Dorothea Lange, November 1936

ABANDONED FARM, 1939. An farm and farmhouse in Columbia Basin, Grant County, Washington State. Photograph by Dorothea Lange, August 1939

POVERTY: GIRL, 1936. A young girl living in a shantytown for migrant workers in Elm Grove, Oklahoma. Photograph by Dorothea Lange, August 1936

TEXAS: HOTEL, 1937. The New Cobb Hotel in Memphis, Texas. Photograph by Dorothea Lange, 1937

FLOOD REFUGEES, 1937. A mother and child of flood refugee family near Memphis, Texas. Photograph by Dorothea Lange, May 1937

FLOOD REFUGEE, 1939. A young flood refugee from Missouri in Westley, California. Photograph by Dorothea Lange, 1939

FSA SLIDE FILM, c1940. Grow your own. Photograph by Dorothea Lange, from a Farm Security Administration educational slide film, c1940

FSA SLIDE FILM, 1936. Food for health. Photograph by Dorothea Lange, from a Farm Security Administration slide film, 1936

GIRLS, c1939. Girls from a sharecropper family on the porch of their home in North Carolina. Photograph by Dorothea Lange, c1939

ARKANSAS: SHARECROPPER. An African American cotton worker dressed in Sunday clothes, Near Blytheville, Arkansas. Photograph by Dorothea Lange in June 1937

MISSOURI: SHARECROPPER. A sharecropper splitting hickory for chair-bottoms in the Ozark Mountains, near Seligman, Missouri. Photograph by Dorothea Lange in August 1938

POTATO FARMER, 1939. A potato farmer leaning on burlap sacks of potatoes while smoking a cigarette, Siskiyou County, California. Photograph by Dorothea Lange in October 1939

WPA: CHILDREN, 1939. Children of a ex-farmer that is working for the Work Projects Administration, standing in front of their home in an abandoned mill village, Thurston County, Washington State

MINNESOTA: LUMBERING, 1937. Lumberjacks using peaveys in handling logs at a lumbercamp near Effie, Minnesota. Photograph by Dorothea Lange, Spetember 1937

OREGON: SAW MILL, 1939. A pond monkey worker guides the direction of logs from the mill pond to the chute at the Pelican Bay Lumber Co. Klamath Falls, Oregon

Migrant farmer and union member who led the Flying Squadron, which attempted to picket large corporate cotton fields
COTTON STRIKER, 1938. Migrant farmer and union member who led the Flying Squadron, which attempted to picket large corporate cotton fields with automobile caravans in Kern County, California

FLAG CEREMONY, 1942. Group of first-graders, many of them Japanese Americans, reciting the Pledge of Allegiance at the Raphael Weill School in San Francisco, California

MIGRANT WORKER, 1939. The home of the Fairbanks at the Vale-Owyhee irrigation project in Malheur County, Oregon. Photograph by Dorothea Lange, 1939

MEXICAN MIGRANTS, 1936. A Mexican family of migrant workers with a flat tire along a road in California. Photograph by Dorothea Lange, February 1936

MIGRANT WORKER CAMP, 1937. Drought refugees from Oklahoma, now migrant workers, in a potato picking camp at Shafter, California. Photograph by Dorothea Lange, 1937

MIGRANT WORKERS, 1936. A Missouri farmer and his wife, refugees from the drought. He is now a migrant farm worker on the Pacific coast in California. Photograph by Dorothea Lange, February 1936

DROUGHT REFUGEES, 1937. A family, fleeing the drought in the southwest, stalled in the desert on their way to California. Photograph by Dorothea Lange, 1937

DROUGHT REFUGEES, 1939. A family from Dallas, Texas, living in Madera County, California. Photograph by Dorothea Lange, 1939

FLORIDA: CHILDREN, 1936. Group of children who receive work study benefits from the National Youth Administration, photographed by Dorothea Lange in Live Oaks, Florida, 1936

COTTON PLANTATION, 1937. Cotton plantation dotted with cabins of sharecroppers, in Washington County, Mississippi. Photograph by Dorothea Lange, 1937

SAN FRANCISCO: SIGNS, 1937. Hand-painted billboard and a signs advocating the repeal of an anti-picketing ordinance, on the side of a building in San Francisco, California

OREGON: RECLAMATION OFFICE. Hand-painted sign on the building of the Bureau of Reclamation office in Nyssa, Oregon. Photograph by Dorothea Lange, 1939

IRRIGATION CANAL, 1939. The concrete-lined Roza irrigation canal in Yakima County, Washington. Photograph by Dorothea Lange, 1939

NEWSSTAND, 1939. Newsstand in San Francisco, California. Photographed by Dorothea Lange, 6 January 1939

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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.