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In 1936, Florence Thompson was a refugee in her own country. Displaced from her home in Oklahoma in the early 1930s, Florence and her family were traveling from one small California farming town to another, looking for work. From Modesto to Salinas to Bakersfield to Fireball, California -- or wherever the next harvest was ready -- they loaded their tent into their Model T Ford and moved on. Hear Florence talk of her experience!

Farm Security Administration Collection

The photograph that has become known as "Migrant Mother" is one of a series of photographs that Dorothea Lange made on March 9th of 1936 in Nipomo, California. Lange was concluding a month's trip photographing migratory farm labor around the state for what was then the Resettlement Administration. In 1960, Lange gave this account of the experience:

Actual Photograph

Manipulated Photograph