The photograph, the source, and the unknowns
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.
- Archive caption
- Migrant agricultural worker's family. Seven hungry children. Mother aged thirty-two. Destitute in pea picker's camp, Nipomo, California
- Creator
- Dorothea Lange
- Date
- 1936-03
- 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. “Seven hungry children.” 1936-03. Library of Congress, FSA/OWI Black-and-White Negatives. https://www.loc.gov/item/2017762903/. Viewed via Nostalgia Museum artifact 753, reviewed 22 August 2026. https://getnostalgia.ai/museum/artifact/QcEYXx4d87xRlzMp/753/face/982
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