Dorothea Lange
Tenant farmer, Chatham County, North Carolina

Tenant farmer, Chatham County, North Carolina

Public Domain

Tenant farmer, Chatham County, North Carolina
ArtistAmerican, 1895–1965
CultureAmerican
Titles
  • Tenant farmer, Chatham County, North Carolina
Date1939, printed 1970s
MediumGelatin silver print
DimensionsImage: 7 3/8 × 6 15/16 in. (18.7 × 17.6 cm)
 Sheet: 7 15/16 × 9 15/16 in. (20.2 × 25.2 cm)
Credit LineMuseum purchase funded by Carl Niendorff
Object number2020.44
Not on view

Explore Further

Department
Photography
Object Type
DescriptionFrom 1935 to 1939, working for the U.S. government’s Resettlement Administration and Farm Security Administration, Dorothea Lange recorded the desperate lives of migrant farm laborers. The assignment called for her to photograph the hard-hit agricultural areas of the American heartland—the South and the Midwest. Lange said that she was photographing both land and human erosion. Her deeply sincere and highly personalized images earned her a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1941, the first to be awarded to a female photographer.
Provenance[Heritage Auctions, Dallas, Monthly Photographs Online Auction, 191951, Lot 97048, December, 2019]; purchased by MFAH, 2020.

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

If you have questions about this work of art or the MFAH Online Collection please contact us.

Six Tenant Farmers without Farms, Hardeman County, Texas
Dorothea Lange
Six Tenant Farmers without Farms, Hardeman County, Texas
May 1937, printed 1976
Gelatin silver print
76.399
Young North Carolinian in old Ford. He does not farm. "Works for wages." At Tuck's filling station. Person County, North Carolina
Dorothea Lange
Young North Carolinian in old Ford. He does not farm. "Works for wages." At Tuck's filling station. Person County, North Carolina
1939, printed 1970s
Gelatin silver print
2020.42
Annual Clean up Day, Women of Congregation of Wheeley's Church, Gordonton, North Carolina
Dorothea Lange
Annual Clean up Day, Women of Congregation of Wheeley's Church, Gordonton, North Carolina
July 1939, printed 1976
Gelatin silver print
76.400
cropped recto of sheet
Dorothea Lange
Cotton sharecropper family. Macon County, Georgia
July, 1937
Gelatin silver print
98.657
Woman of the High Plains, Texas Panhandle
Dorothea Lange
Woman of the High Plains, Texas Panhandle
1938, printed 1965
Gelatin silver print
2021.285
Old Time Professional Migratory Laborer Camping on the Outskirts of Perryton, Texas at Opening of Wheat Harvest
Dorothea Lange
Old Time Professional Migratory Laborer Camping on the Outskirts of Perryton, Texas at Opening of Wheat Harvest
1938, printed 1970s
Gelatin silver print
2020.41
Migratory Field Worker Picking Cotton in San Joaquin Valley, California
Dorothea Lange
Migratory Field Worker Picking Cotton in San Joaquin Valley, California
1938, printed 1970s
Gelatin silver print
2020.43
Resettled farm child from Taos Junction to Bosque Farms project, New Mexico
Dorothea Lange
Resettled farm child from Taos Junction to Bosque Farms project, New Mexico
1935, printed 1970s
Gelatin silver print
2020.45
Freedom of Religion: Three Denominations (Catholic, Lutheran, Baptist Churches) on the Great Plains, Dixon, Near Winner, South Dakota
Dorothea Lange
Freedom of Religion: Three Denominations (Catholic, Lutheran, Baptist Churches) on the Great Plains, Dixon, Near Winner, South Dakota
1938
Gelatin silver print
2002.1506
First Born (Gregor)
Dorothea Lange
First Born (Gregor)
February 1952
Gelatin silver print
2000.74
Ma Burnham from Conway, Arkansas
Dorothea Lange
Ma Burnham from Conway, Arkansas
1938
Gelatin silver print
78.76
Daughter of migrant Tennessee coal miner. Living in the American River Camp near Sacramento, California.
Dorothea Lange
Daughter of migrant Tennessee coal miner. Living in the American River Camp near Sacramento, California.
November 1936
Gelatin silver print
2015.634