Dorothea Lange Quiz: Migrant Mother and Depression Portraits

This Dorothea Lange quiz looks at the documentary photographer whose pictures showed America in hard times. Play 10 interactive questions on Migrant Mother, Florence Owens Thompson, the pea pickers' camp at Nipomo, White Angel Breadline, the Farm Security Administration, An American Exodus, Japanese American incarceration photos and her Guggenheim fellowship.

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🎯 Daily Trivia Challenge • 🧠 10 Questions • ⏱️ 150 Seconds

Question 1 / 10 Time: 150s

Photo
What is Dorothea Lange's most famous photograph?
Subject
Who is the woman in Migrant Mother?
Place
Where was Migrant Mother taken?
Era
Which period do her best-known photos show?
Agency
For which government agency did she work in the 1930s?
Breadline
Which 1933 photo shows a man in a San Francisco breadline?
Book
Which 1939 book did she make with her husband Paul Taylor?
1942
What did she photograph for the government in 1942?
Award
Which honor did she receive in 1941?
Health
Which childhood illness left her with a limp?

Explanations: answer key for all 10 questions

Q1: What is Dorothea Lange's most famous photograph?
Answer: Migrant Mother
It was taken in 1936.
Q2: Who is the woman in Migrant Mother?
Answer: Florence Owens Thompson
She was identified decades later.
Q3: Where was Migrant Mother taken?
Answer: A pea pickers' camp in Nipomo, California
Crops had frozen.
Q4: Which period do her best-known photos show?
Answer: The Great Depression
Many families were displaced.
Q5: For which government agency did she work in the 1930s?
Answer: Farm Security Administration
It documented rural poverty.
Q6: Which 1933 photo shows a man in a San Francisco breadline?
Answer: White Angel Breadline
It launched her documentary work.
Q7: Which 1939 book did she make with her husband Paul Taylor?
Answer: An American Exodus
It mixed photos and text.
Q8: What did she photograph for the government in 1942?
Answer: The incarceration of Japanese Americans
Many images were kept from the public.
Q9: Which honor did she receive in 1941?
Answer: A Guggenheim fellowship
She was the first woman photographer to get one.
Q10: Which childhood illness left her with a limp?
Answer: Polio
She said it shaped how she saw people.

Dorothea Lange Quiz – Migrant Mother and Depression Portraits

Dorothea Lange began as a portrait photographer in San Francisco but turned to the streets during the Great Depression. Her 1933 image White Angel Breadline showed a man waiting for food.

Working for the Farm Security Administration, she photographed displaced families. In 1936 she took Migrant Mother at a pea pickers' camp in Nipomo, California; the woman was later identified as Florence Owens Thompson.

With her husband, economist Paul Taylor, she made the book An American Exodus in 1939. In 1942 she photographed the incarceration of Japanese Americans, and in 1941 she became the first woman photographer to win a Guggenheim fellowship.

What This Quiz Teaches

Photography fans will enjoy these questions.

Which photo made her famous
Who she photographed
Which agency she worked for
Which books she made
Which honors she won

Did You Know?

Polio left her with a limp from childhood.
Migrant Mother is held by the Library of Congress.
She helped found the photography magazine Aperture.
Many of her 1942 photos were long kept from view.
Her work influenced generations of photojournalists.