The original caption for this iconic photograph reads: “Destitute pea pickers in California. Mother of seven children. Age thirty-two. Nipomo, California.” It was taken by photographer Dorothea Lange during the Great Depression, and is also known as “Migrant Mother.”
Throughout the 1920s, Lange worked as a studio portrait photographer in San Francisco. However, by the height of the Great Depression, she turned her focus towards documenting people and her surroundings. Between 1935 and 1945, Lange worked for several Federal agencies, most notably the Farm Security Administration (FSA) and the War Relocation Authority (WRA). She took this famous photograph while on assignment with the Farm Security Administration (previously known as the Resettlement Agency). After WWII, Lange pursued freelance photography and worked for Life as a staff photographer.
Dorothea Lange’s Migrant Mother is a part of America’s 100 Docs, an initiative of the National Archives Foundation in partnership with More Perfect that invites the American public to vote on 100 notable documents from the holdings of the National Archives. Visit 100docs.vote today.
