1930's Media | Photography of the Great Depression

"Migrant Mother"

Photograph

By: Dorothea Lange

Date: February or March 1936

Source: Lange, Dorothea. Illustrative photo in "Ragged, Hungry, Broke, Harvest Workers Live in Squaller." San Francisco News, March 10, 1936. Reprinted in "Dorothea Lange's 'Migrant Mother' Photographs in the Farm Security Administration Collection: An Overview." Library of Congress. Image no. 36583. Available online at http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/print/128_migm.html; website home page: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/fsowhome.html (accessed March 19, 2003).

About the Photographer: Dorothea Lange's (1895–1965) ability to capture the despair and isolation of her subjects arose, seemingly, from her own life's travails. At the age of seven, she contracted polio and was left with a limp...