Oklahoma farm family on highway between Blythe and Indio, California

Artist Dorothea Lange (American, 1895 - 1965)

DateAugust 1936

MediumGelatin silver print

DimensionsImage and sheet: 9 1/2 × 7 5/8 inches (24.13 × 19.37 cm)

Credit LineGift of Hallmark Cards, Inc.

Object number2005.27.4183

SignedOn sheet verso, top, in black ink: "RESETTLEMENT ADMINISTRATION / DATE TAKEN / NEGATIVE NO. / PLACE / TITLE / DESCRIPTIVE CAPTION / Credit Line - Lange for Resettlement Administration."

InscribedOn sheet verso, bottom, in orange pencil: "Aug. 1936 / Blythe Ca-"

MarkingsOn sheete verso, upper left corner, in pencil: "2"; On sheet verso, center, in pencil: "See print #3"

On View

Not on view

Collections

Photography

Terms

DescriptionVintage print of farm family by the side of the highway. Full title: "Example of self resettlement in California. Oklahoma farm family on highway between Blythe and Indio, California, August 1936".Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Rotation 12. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, March 28 – July 22, 2012, no cat.

Dignity vs. Despair: Dorothea Lange and the Depression Era Photographers, 1933-1941. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, June 23 – November 26, 2017, no cat.

Gallery Label

Dorothea Lange began as a professional portrait photographer in the early 1920s. The social calamity of the Depression prodded her to leave the studio to document the nation’s dispossessed. In her work for the Farm Security Administration from 1935 to 1939, Lange traveled across the country, recording the human toll of the Depression and Dust Bowl in images of deep emotional resonance and psychological complexity. Lange had the uncanny ability to see people as both individuals and as representative types: to recognize the iconic in the ordinary.

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