Skip to main content
Advanced Search
Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California
On View
Not on view
Object number1966/7.85

Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California

Artist (American, 1895-1965)
Date1936
Mediumgelatin silver print
Dimensionsmat: 24 × 20 in. (61 × 50.8 cm)
mount: 20 1/16 × 16 1/8 in. (51 × 41 cm)
image (flush): 19 7/8 in. × 16 in. (50.5 × 40.6 cm)
Credit LineGift of the Kalamazoo Photo Guild
Exhibition History"Kalamazoo Collects Photography," KIA (Mar. 1980). "Artists as Storytellers," KIA Nay Gallery (Feb. 12 - Nov. 10, 2000). "The Twentieth Century in Focus: Photographs from the Permanent Collection," KIA (Jan. 25 - Mar. 25, 2002). "The Woman as Subject: Selections from the Permanent Collection," KIA Long Gallery (June 13 - Sept. 8, 2003). "Photo Affinities," Art Center of Battle Creek (Jan. 6 - Mar. 4, 2003). "Looking at the Portrait," KIA Galleries 2&5 (Apr. 23 - July 3, 2005). "Masterworks on Paper," KIA Long Gallery (Sept. 2005- Jan. 2006). "The Human Face: Portraits in Photography," KIA Long Gallery (May 5 - Aug. 28, 2007). "Light Works: Photographs from the Collection," KIA Long Gallery (Sept. 18 - Dec. 12, 2010). "Lasting Legacy: A Collection for Kalamazoo," Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Kalamazoo, Michigan (Sep. 6, 2014 - Jan. 4, 2015). "Light Works: A Century of Photography," KIA traveling exhibit. Nassau County Museum of Art, (Nov. 19, 2016 - Mar. 5, 2017). "Framing Moments: Photography from KIA's Permanent Collection," KIA (Feb. 6 - May 16, 2021)Label TextThe face is that of Florence Owens Thompson. The place was a pea-picking camp near Nipomo, California. The day was March 6, 1936. Migrant Mother is one of the most famous images in the history of American photography. It encapsulates the pain, worry, and struggle endured by millions of people attempting to survive during the Great Depression. It is one in a series of seven photographs Lange took in a ten-minute period while she was on assignment for the Resettlement Administration. The United States government formed the agency to bring attention and aid to farming families hit hard by the devastating economic conditions. Published within a week in the San Francisco News, the image brought almost instant notoriety to Lange, who was already a very successful portrait photographer. She would go on to have a distinguished career as a photo-journalist who documented social injustices and inequality around the world. [Framing moments Exhibition]