The History Place _ Dorothea Lange
http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/lange/
http://www.americaslibrary.gov/aa/lange/aa_lange_subj.html
Migrant Farm Families
Photos with Original Captions
Dorothea Lange (1895-1965) has been called America's greatest documentary photographer. She is best known for her chronicles of the Great Depression and for her photographs of migratory farm workers.
This photograph is one of a series taken by Dorothea Lange (1895-1965) as part of her work in California during the Great Depression.
At the time, many migrants were fleeing the Dust Bowl of the Great Plains in search of work and a better life. Lange’s photos document the difficult conditions these migrants found when they reached California.
Lange’s work was conducted for the Resettlement Administration in Washington and built upon earlier investigations she had done among farm laborers in Nipomo and in California’s Imperial Valley. Her photographs helped raise public awareness of the conditions that migrants faced and built support for government relief programs.
Picture 1: Destitute Pea Pickers in California: Mother of Seven Children, Age Thirty-two, Nipomo, California.
Migrant Mother Lange published her iconic photograph under the title “Destitute Pea Pickers in California. Mother of Seven Children.” The woman pictured was Florence Owens Thompson, who revealed her identity to a local newspaper a few years before her death in 1983.
Most of the workers had come west to escape the Dust Bowl, the lengthy drought which devastated millions of acres of farmland in Midwestern states such as Oklahoma.
Scenes from the Dustbowl:
Picture 2 : A Dustbowl farm. Coldwater District, north of Dalhart, Texas. This house is occupied; most of the houses in this district have been abandoned.
Picture 3: Furrowing against the wind to check the drift of sand. Dust Bowl, north of Dalhart, Texas
Picture 4: Drought-stricken farmer and family near Muskogee, Oklahoma. Agricultural day laborer. Muskogee County.
Picture 5: California at Last: Example of self-resettlement in California. Oklahoma farm family on highway between Blythe and Indio. Forced by the drought of 1936 to abandon their farm, they set out with their children to drive to California. Picking cotton in Arizona for a day or two at a time gave them enough for food and gas to continue. On this day, they were within a day's travel of their destination, Bakersfield, California. Their car had broken down in route and was abandoned.
Picture 6: On the Road: Family walking on highway, five children. Started from Idabel, Oklahoma. Bound for Krebs, Oklahoma. Pittsburg County, Oklahoma.
In 1936 the father farmed on thirds and fourths at Eagleton, McCurtain County, Oklahoma. Was taken sick with pneumonia and lost farm. Unable to get work on Work Projects Administration and refused county relief in county of fifteen years residence because of temporary residence in another county after his illness.
Picture 7:
Tents as Home: Brawley, Imperial Valley, In Farm Security Administration (FSA) migratory labor camp.
During World War II, Dorothea Lange documented the change on the homefront, especially among ethnic groups and workers uprooted by the war
Picture 8:
Members of the Mochida family (1942)
This is a photo of the members of the Mochida family awaiting an evacuation bus. Identification tags are used to aid in keeping the family unit intact during all phases of evacuation. Mochida operated a nursery and five greenhouses on a two-acre site in Eden Township. He raised snapdragons and sweet peas. Evacuees of Japanese ancestry would be housed in War Relocation Authority centers for the duration.
The tags that hang from their clothing are clearly displayed, echoing those on their luggage and drawing attention to their treatment as less than human. This was among a series of pictures commissioned by the government but which were subsequently impounded when fears arose that they would spark outrage at the treatment of internees.
