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Destitute pea pickers in California. Mother of seven children. Age thirty-two. Nipomo, California (LOC)

Destitute pea pickers in California. Mother of seven children. Age thirty-two. Nipomo, California (LOC) Farmer and sons walking in the face of a dust storm. Cimarron County, Oklahoma (LOC) Roadside stand near Birmingham, Alabama (LOC) General store interior. Moundville, Alabama (LOC) Floyd Burroughs, cotton sharecropper. Hale County, Alabama (LOC) Washstand in the dog run and kitchen of Floyd Burroughs' cabin. Hale County, Alabama (LOC) Center of town. Woodstock, Vermont. "Snowy night" (LOC) Toward Los Angeles, California (LOC) Washington, D.C. Government charwoman (LOC) Bethlehem graveyard and steel mill. Pennsylvania (LOC) Washington, D.C. Field trips for the "flying nun" pre-flight class, including inspection tours of hangars at the Washington National Airport. Here, Sister Aquinas is explaining engine structure to her students (LOC) Chicago, Illinois. Model airplanes decorate the ceiling of the train concourses at Union Station (LOC) Chicago, Illinois. In the waiting room of the Union Station (LOC) Negro going in colored entrance of movie house on Saturday afternoon, Belzoni, Mississippi Delta, Mississippi (LOC) Bicycle riders in parade on the Fourth of July at Vale, Oregon (LOC) [Posters covering a building near Lynchburg to advertise a Downie Bros. circus] (LOC) Itinerant photographer in Columbus, Ohio (LOC) Fiddlin' Bill Hensley, mountain fiddler, Asheville, North Carolina (LOC) [Corn planting, Jasper County, Iowa] (LOC) Jitterbugging in Negro juke joint, Saturday evening, outside Clarksdale, Mississippi (LOC)

“Migrant Mother,” by Dorothea Lange, is the most famous photo in the Library of Congress. This 1936 portrait of Florence Thompson and her children symbolizes both economic hardship and the strength to survive. The Library is honored to preserve Lange's original camera negative and makes the digitized photo freely available.

"Migrant Mother" is part of a landmark photo documentary project based in the U.S. Resettlement Administration, the Farm Security Administration (FSA), and later the Office of War Information (OWI). The most active years were 1935-1943, and the entire collection was transferred to us in 1944.

“FSA/OWI Favorites” features 10 of the most frequently requested photos plus 15 staff selections to introduce you to the vast archive of about 170,000 negatives and 107,000 prints of life in America during the Great Depression and World War II.

Go to the FSA/OWI Collection in the Prints & Photographs Online Catalog (PPOC) at LOC to explore more of these amazing photos by gifted photographers who worked with 35mm and large format sheet film. The digital resolution for most images is admittedly low, since the scanning was done in the mid-1990s.

You can jump into the collection in PPOC by typing a word likely to appear in a photo title, for example, “children,” “migrant,” “Fourth of July,” “house,” or “factory.” You can also browse for a place name or pick a photographer’s name from an index.

Don’t miss the “DISPLAY IMAGES WITH NEIGHBORING CALL NUMBERS” feature. It’s a great way to see related images in a photo story, including many negatives never printed (or captioned) for the FSA/OWI files. Looking at the outtakes helps understand the photographers and the selected stories. Mostly, it's a fun way to walk through history.

READ MORE ABOUT IT

Migrant Mother

Bibliography & Related Resources

Portraits of photographers

Color FSA/OWI photos on Flickr


EXPLORE! ... DISCOVER! ... BE INSPIRED!

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25 photos | 125,292 views



Comments on this set

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Nesster  Pro User  says:

Excellent idea, thank you for making these fantastic photos available in a set.
Posted 43 months ago. ( permalink )

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ennailuj  Pro User  says:

Wonderful! I love seeing these full screen. Thank you!!
Posted 43 months ago. ( permalink )

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BoyHaveAfantasy says:

You do realize that this photo is staged, right? And that they removed a thumb on the pole on the right in the darkroom. I know it doesn't take away the importance of the image at all. Just something to think about. Like Capa's famous picture from the Spanish civil war wasn't a true reportage shot either it turns out in 2009 when they got a hold of the contact sheet. I appreciate Dorothea Langes work as much as the next but as a photojournalist myself I can't help think what would happen if I staged my documentary photos too. And everyone did...
Posted 43 months ago. ( permalink )

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johnwalford  Pro User  says:

What a gift!
Posted 43 months ago. ( permalink )

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Julie'sPicks  Pro User  says:

Any chance there is a way to also display the camera equipment the photographers used?
Posted 43 months ago. ( permalink )

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kristina brendel says:

These photographers are my heros, my inspiration. They gave the country images that changed made a difference. And they still do.

BoyHave... if by "staged" you mean she asked if she could take photos, then yes. Removing a thumb from the pole does nothing to alter the authenticity. Photos are subjective, and always have been. Reality is not something that can be captured in any medium...
Posted 43 months ago. ( permalink )

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kevitra  Pro User  says:

These are truely amazing photographs. Thank you for putting them online.
Posted 43 months ago. ( permalink )

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jody9  Pro User  says:

A moving and iconic set of images, a primer for photographers everywhere. Thank you!
Posted 43 months ago. ( permalink )

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Cindy7609  Pro User  says:

I completely agree with Jody9's comment.

And it's so wonderful to see these collected with the ability to view full screen. Have always enjoyed these images and found them stunning.
Posted 43 months ago. ( permalink )

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rmcarrier1  Pro User  says:

Fantastic.
Posted 43 months ago. ( permalink )

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peter.l  Pro User  says:

Fantastic and fascinating set!
Posted 43 months ago. ( permalink )

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«Gaurav» says:

This is such a fantastic thing, almost all the photographs on it were instance favourites. Thank you for sharing these jewels!
Posted 43 months ago. ( permalink )

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steambadger  Pro User  says:

Man, these are just invaluable. Mad props to the Smith for putting them up.

And BoyHave - EVERYTHING is staged to some extent. Choosing and angle is staging, and asking a subject to "hold that pose" is staging. Unless this isn't really a destitute pea picker and mother of seven, I'm not sure I'm getting your point.

As for the thumb -- I try to remove all the thumbs from my shots. Just hate thumbs...
Posted 43 months ago. ( permalink )

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Kristi (LOC P&P) says:

JuBud: We do not have official photographs of just the cameras used in the FSA Collection, as it did vary from photographer to photographer. However, if you look through these portraits of some of the FSA photographers, they are often holding their cameras, so you can get a hint of the tools of their trade:

Photographers of the FSA: Selected Portraits
Posted 43 months ago. ( permalink )

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jimhairphoto  Pro User  says:

Dear LOC,
Thank you for posting images from the collection, and particularly posting some "odd" images that are generally not seen. I knew we had a great treasure in the Library, and it is to the people now working there that I'd like to thank, for making the effort to open the collection to the world.
Posted 38 months ago. ( permalink )

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Roma ieri, Roma oggi di Alvaro de Alvariis  Pro User  says:

Veramente delle immagini stupende!
Truly of beautiful images!
Posted 34 months ago. ( permalink )

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lila38@yahoo.com says:

É simplesmente de uma simplicidade esta foto, mas ao mesmo tempo, mostra a alma.
Posted 28 months ago. ( permalink )

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lreed76  Pro User  says:

Some of the most iconic photos anywhere. Thanks for making them easily available.
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

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BobMeade says:

There's a very good 1965 interview with Jack and Irene Delano which goes into some detail of the workings of the photographic unit of the FSA. See it here:

www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interv...
Posted 4 months ago. ( permalink )

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