Picturing America for Public Libraries

Name of Poster: Migrant Mother, 1936
Poster #: 18-B
Artist: Dorothea Lange
Object: Black and White Photograph
Medium: Gelatin Silver Print
Date: February 1936
Owner or Venue: Library of Congress

Program Outline

1. Use Visual Thinking Strategies to discuss the poster in depth.

2. Connect to library resources with a follow-up discussion; this could go in a variety of directions, depending on the interest of the facilitator and the group. Here are some possibilities:

• The unique ways photography can relay information and emotion.

• The women who have contributed to the field of photography—their accomplishments and struggles.

• The historical significance of Migrant Mother, 1936, thinking about migrant workers, the Great Depression, poverty and hunger.

• The role of photojournalism in society—and the impact on the subjects’ lives (eee websites below).

3. Booktalk contemporary teen fiction, non-fiction, and classic titles related to the Great Depression and women photographers.

4. Depending on the interests of the group, watch an excerpt from the DVD, Annie Leibovitz, and relate her experiences and photographs to Dorothea Lange’s.

Background Notes

In addition to the Picturing America Teachers Resource Book, pp. 80–81, and the books listed in the bibliography, particularly the two by Elizabeth Partridge, the following websites provide fascinating perspectives from family members:

• Interview with Katherine McIntosh, one of the daughters in the photograph.

• Website of Roger Sprague, grandson of Florence Owens Thompson (the subject of Migrant Mother, 1936).

Target Audience

Teens (ages 13–18)

Program Books

Fiction

Blundell, Judy. What I Saw and How I Lied. Scholastic, 2008.

Hesse, Karen. Out of the Dust. Scholastic, 1997.

Peck, Robert Newton. Extra Innings. HarperCollins, 2001.

Soto, Gary. Jesse. Harcourt, 2006.

Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. Viking Press, 1939.

———. Of Mice and Men. Penguin, 1993.

Straight, Susan. Highwire Moon. Houghton Mifflin, 2001.

Non-fiction

Chacón, Justin Akers. No One Is Illegal: Fighting Violence and State Repression on the U.S.-Mexico Border. Haymarket Books, 2006.

Evans, Walker and Cynthia Rylant Something Permanent. Harcourt Brace, 1994.

Stanley, Jerry. Children of the Dust Bowl: The True Story of the School at Weedpatch Camp. Crown, 1992.

Program DVD

Annie Leibovitz. Dir. Rebecca Frayn. DVD. Image Entertainment, 2001.

Bibliography

Photography

Beker, Karin E. Dorothea Lange and the Documentary Tradition. Louisiana State University Press, 1980.

Berch, Bettina. The Woman Behind the Lens: The Life and Work of Frances Benjamin Johnston. University Press of Virginia, 2000.

Kogan, Deborah Copaken. Shutterbabe: Adventures in Love and War. Villard Books, 2000.

Lee, Anthony W. Diane Arbus: Family Albums. Yale University Press, 2003.

Leibovitz, Annie. American Music. Random House, 2003.

———. Annie Lebovitz at Work. Random House, 2008.

———. Olympic Portraits. Little, Brown, 1996.

———. A Photographer’s Life, 1990–2005. Random House, 2006.

———. Women. Random House, 1999.

McEuen, Melissa A. Seeing America: Women Photographers Between the Wars. University Press of Kentucky, 2000.

Partridge, Elizabeth, ed. Dorothea Lange—A Visual Life. Smithsonian Institution Press, 1994.

Partridge, Elizabeth. Restless Spirit: The Life and Work of Dorothea Lange. Viking, 1998.

Rubin, Susan Goldman. Margaret Bourke-White: Her Pictures Were Her Life. Abrams, 1999.

Sullivan, George. Bernice Abbott, Photographer: An Independent Vision. Clarion Books, 2006.

Great Depression/Immigration—DVDs

In the Land of Plenty. Dirs. Susan Aikin and Carlos Aparicio. DVD. Filmakers Library, 2005.

Of Mice and Men. Dir. Gary Sinise. DVD. MGM Home Entertainment, 2003.