The Great
Depression
Image 1
Photographer Dorothea
Lange captured many photographs of migrant families during the Great
Depression. The woman in this photograph, Florence Thompson, revealed to
Lange that the family was living on frozen vegetables from the surrounding
fields and birds hunted by her children. She had recently sold the tires of
their car to buy more food. |
Image 2
This
photograph of Florence Thompson and her family in their tent is from the same
series as the first photograph. |
Image 3
Also taken
by Dorothea Lange, this photograph shows a migrant family that was transplanted
from Oklahoma to California. Lange recorded this quote from the mother:
"Anybody as wants to work can get by. But if a person loses their faith
in the soil like so many of them back there in Oklahoma, then there ain't no
hope for them. We're making it all right here, all but for the schooling,
'cause that boy of mine, he wants to go to the University." |
Images
1, 2, and 3
Lange,
Dorothea. Depression refugee family from Tulsa, Oklahoma. Arrived in California
June 1936.
Mother
and three half-grown children; no father. 1936. Library of Congress Prints and
Photographs Division.
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on Answer Questions to begin this unit.