Migrant Mother Quiz: Dorothea Lange's 1936 Photograph

This migrant mother quiz looks into the face of a worried mother in 1936. Play 10 interactive questions on Dorothea Lange's work for a government agency, a pea pickers' camp in Nipomo, California, Florence Owens Thompson and her children, a handful of exposures taken in minutes, a newspaper story that brought food aid, a retouched thumb and the photo's home at the Library of Congress.

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

Question 1 / 10 Time: 150s

Who
Who took Migrant Mother?
Year
When was the photo taken?
Where
Where was it taken?
Mother
Who is the woman in the photograph?
Agency
For which government agency was Lange working?
Shots
About how many exposures did Lange make of the family?
Aid
What happened after the photos were published?
Thumb
What was retouched out of one version?
Kids
How are the children posed in the famous frame?
Home
Where is the photograph preserved?

Explanations: answer key for all 10 questions

Q1: Who took Migrant Mother?
Answer: Dorothea Lange
In 1936.
Q2: When was the photo taken?
Answer: 1936
During the Great Depression.
Q3: Where was it taken?
Answer: A pea pickers' camp in Nipomo, California
In California.
Q4: Who is the woman in the photograph?
Answer: Florence Owens Thompson
Identified decades later.
Q5: For which government agency was Lange working?
Answer: The Resettlement Administration
Later part of the FSA.
Q6: About how many exposures did Lange make of the family?
Answer: Six or seven
In about ten minutes.
Q7: What happened after the photos were published?
Answer: Food aid was sent to the camp
A newspaper story helped.
Q8: What was retouched out of one version?
Answer: A thumb in the corner
Lange disliked the change.
Q9: How are the children posed in the famous frame?
Answer: Two turn their faces away
Leaning on her shoulders.
Q10: Where is the photograph preserved?
Answer: Library of Congress
Public domain.

A Face of the Great Depression

In March 1936, Dorothea Lange, working for the Resettlement Administration, later part of the Farm Security Administration, stopped at a pea pickers' camp in Nipomo, California. There she photographed a mother with her children, making six or seven exposures in about ten minutes.

In the most famous frame, the mother looks into the distance with a hand to her face while two children lean on her shoulders, faces turned away. When the photos were published in a newspaper, food aid was sent to the camp. Decades later the mother was identified as Florence Owens Thompson.

One version was retouched to remove a thumb in the corner, a change Lange disliked. Migrant Mother is preserved at the Library of Congress and became an enduring image of the Great Depression.

What This Quiz Teaches

Photography fans will enjoy these questions.

Who took it
When and where it was taken
Who the mother was
What effect it had
Where it is kept

Did You Know?

Lange had a limp from childhood polio.
Thompson had several children.
The photo is in the public domain.
Lange also documented Japanese American internment.
Many artists have referenced it.