Seven Hungry Children: American Families, 1936-1939
15 photos, hung as rooms. Every plaque says what the family confirmed — and what is still a guess.
About this exhibit
The Farm Security Administration photographed the same crisis two ways in the same summer. Dorothea Lange's captions describe a condition and leave the people anonymous — "Destitute pea pickers", "Migrant agricultural worker's family". In Hale County, Alabama, Walker Evans wrote down names: Allie Mae Burroughs, Floyd Burroughs, Bud Fields, Frank Tengle. Same programme, same year, two ways of seeing the same people. The wall hangs chronologically, so the Alabama portraits land in the middle of the road sequence rather than in a room of their own. That is deliberate: the summer of 1936 was happening in both places at once, to families who never met. Seven of these fifteen photographs still have nobody's name attached — not because the archive lost them, but because nobody wrote them down. It was nine until we checked our own plaques against the Library's records: two families had already been identified, and one of those identifications is credited simply to "a family member". Somebody's relative recognised them and wrote in. That is what the plaques here are for.
1930s
15 photos
"Can't make it. Want to go back."
WhenFebruary 1936
WhereCalifornia
Dorothea Lange wrote their words into the caption: they had come seven months earlier, and had eaten up the car and eaten up the tent. She did not write down their names. This is where the exhibit starts — with a family already beaten, so that the road ahead is not mistaken for an adventure.
Destitute pea pickers in California
WhenMarch 1936
WhereNipomo, California
For decades this photograph was captioned only by condition — "Mother of seven children. Age thirty-two." The Library of Congress record now opens: "Photograph shows Florence Thompson with three of her children." The picture did not change. The caption did. A photograph whose people get their names back is the whole argument of this wall.
WhoFlorence Thompson
Seven hungry children
WhenMarch 1936
WhereNipomo, California
The same camp, the same afternoon, the same mother. For decades this frame carried only “seven hungry children” — but the Library's record now names her here too: Florence Thompson, with two of her children. Lange made six exposures at Nipomo that day. The names arrived later, and not from the photographer.
WhoFlorence Thompson
Abandoned farm in the dust bowl area
WhenApril 1936
WhereOklahoma
Arthur Rothstein, and the only photograph here with nobody in it. It is the reason for all the others.
Allie Mae Burroughs
WhenSummer 1936
WhereHale County, Alabama
After four captions that describe a condition, a caption that is a woman's name. Nothing about her circumstances is better than the families on the road. The difference is that Walker Evans wrote the name down.
WhoAllie Mae Burroughs
Floyd Burroughs
WhenSummer 1936
WhereHale County, Alabama
Her husband, named in his own right, photographed against the same wall. Hung together the two of them read as a page from a family album — which is what a shoebox becomes when somebody labels it.
WhoFloyd Burroughs
Charles Burroughs and Floyd Burroughs
WhenSummer 1936
WhereHale County, Alabama
Two generations, both named. This is the only photograph on the wall where a family relationship can be drawn from the archive's record alone, without anybody guessing.
WhoCharles Burroughs, Floyd Burroughs
Frank Tengle family, sharecroppers
WhenSummer 1936
WhereHale County, Alabama
A named father and unnamed children, in one frame. The record carries Frank Tengle; everyone standing with him is "family". If you know who they are, the archive would like to hear from you — and so would we.
WhoFrank Tengle
Bud Fields and his family at home
When1935 or 1936
WhereHale County, Alabama
The archive is not certain of the year, and neither are we: the record reads "1935 or 1936". Everyone here is at home, and only the man is named.
WhoBud Fields
Camping by the roadside, hoping for cotton
WhenAugust 1936
WhereCalifornia
Not anonymous after all. The caption describes a roadside camp, but the Library's record adds three names — Zella (McCann) Power, her husband Jess, and their baby Jesse — and credits them to a family member. Somebody's relative recognised them and wrote in. That is exactly what the plaques on this wall are for.
WhoJesse Power, Jess Power, Zella (McCann) Power
Children and home of migratory cotton workers
WhenNovember 1936
WhereSouthern San Joaquin Valley, California
The word "home" is the archive's, not ours. In the photograph it is a tent.
"Broke, baby sick, car trouble."
WhenFebruary 1937
WhereU.S. 99 near Tracy, California
Six words in quotation marks, holding a whole year. Seven months out of the drought area, and one of the few captions where the family's own voice survives instead of a description of them.
Family camped on U.S. Highway 63
WhenMay 1937
WhereCache County, Oklahoma
Still in Oklahoma, a year on. The road did not empty, and not everyone who left it got anywhere.
Abandoned farm in the Dust Bowl
WhenJune 1938
WhereColdwater District near Dalhart, Texas
Rothstein's Oklahoma farm again, two years on and just across the Texas line — and this time it is Lange holding the camera. The land is still empty. The room you walked in on has not changed.
Children of migratory pea pickers, Brawley camp
WhenFebruary 1939
WhereBrawley, California
Three years after Nipomo: another camp, another set of pea pickers' children, still unnamed. These are the ones who lived long enough to be asked. Nobody asked them. The wall ends on the question rather than on an answer.
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