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Dorothea Lange's "Migrant Mother" Photographs in the Farm Security Administration Collection

Selected Bibliography

The following resources provide more information on Dorothea Lange and the "Migrant Mother" image series.  Print resources link to the item in the Library of Congress Online Catalog.

Contemporary Publications

  • "Ragged, Hungry, Broke, Harvest Workers Live in Squaller." San Francisco News (March 10, 1936).
  • "What Does the 'New Deal' Mean to This Mother and Her Children?" San Francisco News (March 11, 1936).

Later Publications

  • Dunn, Geoffrey. "The heart of a woman." Santa Maria Sun, vol. 2, no. 46 (Feb. 15, 2002)
  • ----. "Photographic License." Metro: Santa Clara Valley's Weekly Newspaper, vol. 10 (Jan. 19-25, 1995): 20-24.
  • -----. "Photographic License." New Times: San Luis Obispo (2002). Archive no longer available online, but accessible through Internet Archive: (accessed 11/2018) http://web.archive.org/web/20020602103656/http://www.newtimes-slo.com/archives/cov_stories_2002/cov_01172002.html External
  • "Dust Bowl Update." Life (Aug. 1979): 9.
  • Fluck, Winifred. "Poor like Us: Poverty and Recognition in American Photography." Amerikastudien / American Studies, vol. 55, no. 1 (2010): 63-93. 
  • Foley, Jack. "'Migrant Mother' Now Lies Dying: Subject of Photo Racked by Cancer." San Jose Mercury News (Aug. 21, 1983).
  • Harrison, Scott. "The 'Mother' of all Depression photos..." Los Angeles Times (March 17, 2016): B.2.
  • "A Haunting Symbol of the Depression Struggles for Her Life, Pleads For Help." Rochester, NY, Democrat and Chronicle (Aug. 25, 1983).
  • Johnson, James. "' The Arithmetic of Compassion': Rethinking the Politics of Photography." British Journal of Political Science, vol. 41, no. 3 (July 2011): 621-643.
  • Katz, Meighen. "A Paradigm of Resilience: The Pros and Cons of Using the FSA Photographic Collection in Public History Interpretations of the Great Depression." The Public Historian, vol. 36, no. 4 (Nov. 2014): 8-25.
  • Meadows, Rae. "Dorothea Lange and the Art of the Caption." Contexts, vol. 14, iss. 4 (Nov. 2015): 66-69.
  • Reblando, Jason. "Farm Security Administration Photographs of Greenbelt Towns: Selling Utopia During the Great Depression." Utopian Studies - Special Issue: Utopia and Architecture, vol. 25, no. 1 (2014). 52-86.
  • Sandweiss, Martha A. "Image and Artifact: The Photograph as Evidence in the Digital Age." The Journal of American History, vol. 94, no. 1 (June 2007): 193-202.
  • Taylor, Paul. "Migrant Mother: 1936." The American West: The Magazine of Western History. (May 1970): 41-47.

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