Terms and conditions of use
Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California
(1936); printed (c. 1975)
- Medium
- gelatin silver photograph
- Measurements
- 49.4 × 39.6 cm (image) 50.6 × 40.7 cm (sheet)
- Place/s of Execution
- Nipomo, California, United States
- Accession Number
- PH90-1975
- Department
- International Photography
- Credit Line
- National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased, 1975
Public domain
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of Daryl and Anne Whinney - Gallery location
- Not on display
- About this work
-
Migrant mother is an iconic image of the Great Depression of the 1930s. In 1936, photographer Dorothea Lange was returning home from a month-long assignment for the Farm Security Administration when she came across a group of itinerant farm workers. These people had hoped to find work picking peas, but on their arrival at the farm found the crop had been destroyed by frost. Now destitute, this woman and her children were starving and reduced to living in a makeshift tent on the side of the road. Lange was so moved by their plight that she sent her photographs to the San Francisco News. The publication of this photograph struck an emotional chord with the people of the United States, and aid flooded in from around the country.