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In this black and white, vertical photograph, a man, woman, and baby, all with pale skin, rest on blankets, or perhaps rugs, spread over a roughly built wooden platform under a leafy tree. Closest to us, the man takes up most of the right half of the composition. He lies on his stomach with his left arm, on our right, stretched out in front. His hand is close to the photographer so is slightly out of focus, and he cups his forehead with his other hand. The wooden platform on which he lies runs close to the bottom edge of the image. His light hair stands straight up from his head, and he is cleanshaven. He wears a long-sleeved, button-down shirt and looks off to our left and a little above us from under raised eyebrows and a creased brow. To our left, a woman sits beyond the man with her body angled to our left. Her chin-length dark hair is tucked behind her ears, and her worn dress has tattered seams and gapes at the waist. She hunches slightly over the child she holds and looks up and to our left, her mouth open and her eyebrows knit. She seems to breastfeed the young, barefoot child who clutches her dress. The baby looks toward us from the corners of wide eyes. The toes and the ball of a person’s foot, mostly cropped from the image, are next to the man, along the right edge of the photograph. A piece of cloth is tied into the branches above and over the woman to create a makeshift tent against the bright glare of the sun.

Dorothea Lange

Drought refugees from Oklahoma camping by the roadside, Blythe, California, August 17, 1936

Not on View

Medium

gelatin silver print

Dimensions

image: 24 × 19.1 cm (9 7/16 × 7 1/2 in.)
mount: 33.02 × 28.26 cm (13 × 11 1/8 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser

Accession Number

2017.162.4

Artists / Makers

Dorothea Lange (artist) American, 1895 - 1965

Image Use

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Inscription

on verso, upper center stamped in black ink: RESETTLEMENT ADMINISTRATION / DATE TAKEN [by Dorothea Lange in black ink: August 17 1936] / NEGATIVE NO. / PLACE [by Dorothea Lange in black ink: Blythe, California] / TITLE [by Dorothea Lange in black ink: Drought Refugees from Oklahoma, in California] / Credit line-- Lange for Resettlement Administration; by Dorothea Lange, center in black ink: Drought Refugees from Oklahoma Camping by / the Roadside. They hope to work in the cotton . / Family of Seven. / The officer at the border (Cal-Arizona) inspection / service said that on this day Aug 17 1936 / 23 car loads and truck loads of migrant families / out of the drought countries of Oklahoma and Arkansas. / had passed through that station, [illegible] California / up to 3 o'clock in the afternoon.

Provenance

(sale, Christie's, New York, 5 October 2015); Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser, Van Nuys, CA; gift to NGA, 2017.

Associated Names

Susan Steinhauser

Bibliography

1982: Hoffman, Michael E., ed. Dorothea Lange: Photographs of a Lifetime. New York, 1982: 73.

2002: Borhan, Pierre. Dorothea Lange, the Heart and Mind of a Photographer. Boston, 2002: 145.

2009: Rubio, Oliva María, Sandra S. Phillips, Jack Von Euw, and Richard K. Doud, in collaboration with PHotoEspaña. Dorothea Lange: The Crucial Years, 1930–1946. Madrid, 2009: 26.

2014: Gordon, Linda. Dorothea Lange. New York, 2014: 33.