When Dorothea Lange captured the image known as “Migrant Mother” in 1936, she inadvertently created an enduring symbol of the Great Depression’s widespread hardship. The woman in the photograph, Florence Owens Thompson, was only thirty-two years old, yet her face told a story of ageless struggle and maternal fortitude.
Florence Owens Thompson’s life was a journey of survival from the outset. Born into a world of mixed heritage, with both Cherokee and Choctaw lineage, her early years were spent on a small farm in Indian Territory, now Oklahoma. Her life took a difficult turn when her first husband succumbed to tuberculosis, leaving her to fend for her children alone. Thompson later recalled periods when she picked 400–500 pounds of cotton from first daylight until after it was too dark to work. She said: “I worked in hospitals. I tended bar. I cooked. I worked in the fields. I done a little bit of everything to make a living for my kids.”
On that fateful day in March 1936, as Thompson’s family made their way towards potential work in the lettuce fields of the Pajaro Valley, their car broke down, forcing them into a pea pickers’ camp in Nipomo, California. It was here, surrounded by desperation with her children hungry, that Lange approached the family. Lange’s original intention was to highlight the plight of 2,500 to 3,500 migrant workers left unemployed due to a crop freeze. Little did she know that her photographs would evoke a visceral response across the nation, prompting the government to send 20,000 pounds of food to the camp.
Thompson, who had promised Lange that the photographs would remain unpublished, saw her likeness assume mythical proportions. The picture became iconic, symbolizing the era and described as “the most remarkable human documents ever rendered in pictures” by Edward Steichen. Lange herself considered it her most memorable photo, a sentiment echoed by Roy Stryker, “Lange never surpassed it. To me, it was the picture … . The others were marvelous, but that was special … . She is immortal.”
The identity of the woman in the photograph remained a mystery for over forty years. It wasn’t until a Modesto Bee reporter, acting on a tip, located Thompson in 1978 that the world learned her name. Despite the fame of the image, Thompson’s life remained one of quiet endurance. “I wish she Lange hadn’t taken my picture. I can’t get a penny out of it. She didn’t ask my name. She said she wouldn’t sell the pictures. She said she’d send me a copy. She never did.”
Her family’s public appeal for financial assistance during her final days in late August 1983. As her son, Troy Owens, stated, it transformed from “a bit of a curse” into a source of pride after receiving over 2,000 letters with donations.
In a poignant twist, for the 32 rediscovered Lange photos was found in a dumpster, only to fetch $296,000 at auction decades later. The photo was also sold as a print at Sotheby’s New York for $244,500.
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– Florence Owens Thompson, May 8, 2020