Dorothea Lange Documents America in Crisis, March 1936

By Sarah Pruitt in HISTORY

The Real Story Behind the ‘Migrant Mother’ in the Great Depression-Era Photo

It’s one of the most iconic photos in American history. A woman in ragged clothing holds a baby as two more children huddle close, hiding their faces behind her shoulders. The mother squints into the distance, one hand lifted to her mouth and anxiety etched deep in the lines on her face.

From the moment it first appeared in the pages of a San Francisco newspaper in March 1936, the image known as “Migrant Mother” came to symbolize the hunger, poverty and hopelessness endured by so many Americans during the Great Depression. The photographer Dorothea Lange had taken the shot, along with a series of others, days earlier in a camp of migrant farm workers in Nipomo, California. FOR MORE

Photo Credit: Unsplash Zach Guinta