The photograph, the source, and the unknowns
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.
- Archive caption
- Drought refugees, penniless Oklahomans camped along the highway
- Creator
- Dorothea Lange
- Date
- 1936-02
- Credit
- Library of Congress, FSA/OWI Black-and-White Negatives
- Rights
- US Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information collection — LoC states the contents are in the public domain and free to use and reuse; work of the US federal government · Public Domain Mark 1.0
- Source record
- Open the institution or repository record
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Dorothea Lange. “"Can't make it. Want to go back.".” 1936-02. Library of Congress, FSA/OWI Black-and-White Negatives. https://www.loc.gov/item/2017759652/. Viewed via Nostalgia Museum artifact 751, reviewed 22 August 2026. https://getnostalgia.ai/museum/artifact/QcEYXx4d87xRlzMp/751/face/937
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