August 1939. "Centralia, Lewis County, Washington state. Railroad yard, looking down from highway bridge. Disaster to the town: The one remaining lumber mill burned down a week before. Note smoke and wreckage." Medium format negative by Dorothea Lange for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.

August 1939. "Western Washington subsistence farm, whittled out of the stumps." Photo by Dorothea Lange for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.

July 1937. "Sharecropper's wife, mother of seven. Woman in doorway is mother of fourteen, ten living; fifty-six grandchildren. Near Chesnee, South Carolina." Photo by Dorothea Lange for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.

March 1937. "Children of migratory carrot pullers, Mexicans. Imperial Valley, California." Medium format negative by Dorothea Lange. View full size.

        UPDATE (2017): Thanks to the sleuthing of journalist Tori Cummins and historian Joe Manning, we now know the identity of the young woman in this photo: Ruby Nell Shepard (1916-1970). You can read her story on Joe's website.

November 1936. "Daughter of migrant Tennessee coal miner. Living in American River camp near Sacramento, California." Medium-format nitrate negative by Dorothea Lange for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.

February 1936. "Lilac Street, Mission District, San Francisco. Rent fifteen dollars a month for three rooms." The alley seen earlier here. Medium format negative by Dorothea Lange for the Resettlement Administration. View full size.

February 1936. "Card Alley. North Beach District (Italians). San Francisco, California." 4x5 acetate negative by Dorothea Lange. View full size.

February 1936. "Mission District. Slums of San Francisco, California." 4x5 negative by Dorothea Lange for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.

April 1936. "Grocery store in Widtsoe, Utah. FSA land use project purchase area and clients who will be removed to more desirable section." Medium format negative by Dorothea Lange for the Resettlement Administration. View full size.

        Our second visit with this family, with ten of their eleven children, now ready for their close-up.

February 1939. Brawley, Imperial County, California. "In Farm Security Administration migratory labor camp. Family of mother, father and eleven children, originally from near Mangrum, Oklahoma, where he had been tenant farmer. Came to California in 1936 after the drought. Since then has been traveling from crop to crop in California, following the harvest. Six of the eleven children attend school wherever the family stops long enough. Five older children work along with the father and mother. February 23, two of the family have been lucky and 'got a place' (a day's work) in peas on the Sinclair ranch. Father had earned about $1.73 for ten-hour day. Oldest daughter had earned $1.25. From these earnings they had to provide their transportation to the fields 20 miles away. Mother wants to return to Oklahoma, father unwilling." Photo by Dorothea Lange for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.

February 1939. Brawley, Imperial County, California. "In Farm Security Administration migrant labor camp during pea harvest. Family from Oklahoma with eleven children. Father, eldest daughter and eldest son working. She: 'I want to go back to where we can live happy, live decent, and grow what we eat.' He: 'I've made my mistake and now we can't go back. I've got nothing to farm with'." Photo by Dorothea Lange for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.

October 1939. "He brought his family to the West in a homemade trailer from Texas five months ago. Photograph made after supper. Boy sick. Father has work now in potato field. Merrill, Klamath County, Oregon. In mobile unit, FSA camp." Photo by Dorothea Lange for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.

August 1939. Yakima Valley, Washington. "Champion hop picker in squatter camp before the season opens. Earned five dollars a day in the 1938 season. Age 23, been on the road seven years. Married. 'I think I did pretty well, only have one baby. Want to get out of this living like a dog'." Medium format nitrate negative by Dorothea Lange for the Resettlement Administration. View full size.

August 1939. "Washington, Yakima Valley, near Wapato. One tenant purchase program (Farm Security Administration) client, Jacob N. Schrock. This family with eight children had lived for 25 years on a rocky, rented farm in this valley. They now own 48 acres of good land, this good house, price $6,770. They raise hay, grain, dairy and hogs. Mrs. Schrock says, 'Quite a lot of difference between that old rock pile, and around here'." Photo by Dorothea Lange. View full size.

August 1939. "Washington, Yakima Valley, near Wapato. Carrying peppers from garden. One of eight Schrock children, Farm Security Administration client family in tenant purchase program." Photo by Dorothea Lange. View full size.