When you think of life in the United States in the 1930s, you probably think of broken down stock traders and kids on city streets chasing coal trucks. And while economic downturn did hit cities hard, rural poverty took things to a whole new level.
As one of photojournalism's pioneers, Dorothea Lange worked to expose injustice with her camera and took aim at laborers, farmers, and migrants struggling in the dustbowl.
Here are 20 photos of what life looked like in the 1930s, thanks to the decade's most important photographer.
1
Broke, Baby Sick, and Car Trouble!
A Missouri family broken down near California.
2
White Angel Breadline
San Francisco, 1932.
3
Grocery Store
Emery Valley Mercantile Co. store in Widtsoe, Utah. 1936.
4
Cotton Workers
Clarksdale, Mississippi, 1937.
5
“Migrant Mother”
Florence Thompson with some of her children. California, 1936.
6
Migrant Mother
Sequence continued.
7
Migrant Family
Lettuce workers in California.
8
Country Store on Dirt Road
Gordonton, North Carolina, 1939.
9
Labor Strikes
New York City, 1965.
10
Farmers
“Who have bought machinery cooperatively,” West Carlton, Yamhill County, Oregon. 1939.
11
Georgia Road Sign
Warning vagrants, 1938.
12
Unemployed Lumber Worker
And his wife in 1939.
13
Farm Security Administration
Squatter camp in California, 1936.
14
Dust Bowl Farm
Coldwater District, north of Dalhart, Texas. 1938.
15
The Arnold Children
Michigan Hill, Washington, 1939.
16
Outskirts of Fresno, California
On U.S. 99, 1939.
17
Mexican Labor
Off for the melon fields in the Imperial Valley, California, 1935.
18
Post Office and Postmistress
Widtsoe, Utah, 1936.
19
"Social Justice"
Founded by Father Coughlin, sold in New York, 1939.
20
Dorothea Lange
Portrait On her Ford Model 40.
