August 1936. Family between Dallas and Austin, Texas. The people have left their home and connections in South Texas, and hope to reach the Arkansas Delta for work in the cotton fields. Penniless people. No food and three gallons of gas in the tank. The father is trying to repair a tire. Three children. Father says, "It's tough but life's tough anyway you take it." View full size. Photo by Dorothea Lange.

Oregon, August 1939. "Unemployed lumber worker goes with his wife to the bean harvest. Note Social Security number tattooed on his arm." View full size | Buy fine-art print. (And now a bit of Shorpy scholarship/detective work. A public records search shows that 535-07-5248 belonged to one Thomas Cave, born July 1912, died in 1980 in Portland. Which would make him 27 years old when this picture was taken.) Medium format safety negative by Dorothea Lange.

May 1939. Between Tulare and Fresno on U.S. 99. Farmer from Independence, Kansas, on the road at cotton chopping time. He and his family have been in California for six months. View full size. Photograph by Dorothea Lange.

August 1936. Drought refugees from Abilene, Texas, following the crops of California as migratory workers. Said the father: "The finest people in this world live in Texas but I just can't seem to accomplish nothin' there. Two year drought, then a crop, then two years drought and so on. I got two brothers still trying to make it back there." View full size. Photograph by Dorothea Lange.

On the road with her family one month from South Dakota. Tulelake, Siskiyou County, Calif. September 1939. View full size. Photograph by Dorothea Lange.

"Washington, Yakima Valley, near Wapato. One of Chris Adolph's younger children. Farm Security Administration Rehabilitation clients." August 1939. View full size. Photograph by Dorothea Lange.

"Youngest little girl of motherless family." Toppenish in the Yakima Valley of Washington State. August 1939. View full size. Photograph by Dorothea Lange.