Dorothea Lange

Supported by government programs and new picture magazines like LIFE, Dorothea Lange and other photographers of the 1930s and '40s created an indelible record of everyday life in difficult times. The Great Depression caused many photographers to consider the camera as an instrument of social change. Foremost among this group was Berkeley photographer Dorothea Lange, whose intimate pictures of people in distress were driven by a deep personal empathy. She continued her intensely personal work after the Depression, creating series on the forced relocation of Japanese Americans during World War II, Irish country life, and postwar suburban California, among many other projects. The Oakland Museum of California houses Lange’s personal archive, a gift from the artist that includes 25,000 negatives, 6,000 vintage prints, field notes, and personal memorabilia. Curators and researchers from around the world visit the Museum to access the Lange collection.

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Dust Bowl Dorothea Lange 1938 in Lange's hand (pencil and red pencil), filed in Lange work print file #39Q, with the following title and inscription: DUST BOWL / FSA Exodus / See Texas / See Oklahoma Note in Catalog...	Dust Bowl (Dust Bowl Farm) Dorothea Lange c. 1938 Filed in Lange work print file #39P, labeled: Texas (1936-1938) - see also, oversized prints
San Joaquin Valley, 1939 Dorothea Lange 1939 mount board creased on corners, edges of board stained yellow, pin hole u.l. of board	photograph Dorothea Lange c.1935
photograph Dorothea Lange c.1935	Drought Refugees - Equipage Dorothea Lange c.1935
Drought Refugees Dorothea Lange c.1935 in Lange's hand, on original folder containing this photograph (pencil): On the Road - / see d. r - Labor on the move and by someone else (ink): #37 F...	Drought Refugees Dorothea Lange c.1935 in Lange's hand, on original folder containing this photograph (pencil): On the Road - / see d. r - Labor on the move and by somone else (ink): #37 F 151 prints / Mostly California 1935 / a...
Drought Refugees - Equipage Dorothea Lange c.1935 In Lange's hand, on file folder (black crayon): Howard Family	(Living on wheels) Dorothea Lange 1936 Unable to find matching negative. Negative probably at Resettlement Administration
Midcontinent 1)Returned from California 2.) Returned Dorothea Lange Aug-38 This photograph appears on page 60 of AN AMERICAN EXODUS by Dorothea Lange and Paul Schuster Taylor, 1939. The caption on page 61 is as follows: Canadian County Oklahoma, August 1938 / Returning...	Italian Americans Dorothea Lange Jun-43
(Looking for Work) Dorothea Lange Feb-36 from work print collection	(Ten Children) Dorothea Lange Mar-37 from work print collection
(Texas Family) Dorothea Lange 1936 see A67.137.93534 & .94218 for other photographs of this family from work print collection	(Oklahoma Refugees) Dorothea Lange c. 1935 from work print collection
Drought Refugees - Grandmother from Oklahoma, Imperial Valley\|Grandmother from Oklahoma Dorothea Lange Mar-35 from work print collection	Home is Where Dorothea Lange 1954 This is one of a strip of three 35mm negatives cataloged as 67.137.45038.1 through .3
Midcontinent\|1.) Homeless Family 2.) Depressed Main Street Dorothea Lange Jun-38 Notes in Catalog Sheet Volume 4 read: Publications a.) AMEX '69-pg 55 CAC-pg. 41 b.) AMEX `69-pg 54 -agricultural depression, years of drought, depopulation	Metropolitan Oakland Dorothea Lange 1952 Written on negative envelope: "Metropolitan Oakland 52 (with Dan)"
Richmond\|All Night Movie Theatre Dorothea Lange c.1942 Approx. 1.5 inches of the top of the negative have been cut off.	Japanese Owned Grocery Store, Oakland Dorothea Lange 03/30/42 Lange Problem #159. No Contact or Catalog Sheet.
First Braceros Dorothea Lange ca. 1942	"Thirteen Million Unemployed fill the Cities in the Early Thirties," San Francisco Dorothea Lange 1934