Dorothea Lange's Migrant Mother
“Migrant Mother,” by Dorothea Lange, is the most famous photo in the Library of Congress. This 1936 portrait of Florence Thompson and her children symbolizes both economic hardship and the strength to survive. The Library is honored to preserve Lange’s original camera negative and makes the digitized photo freely available.
The Migrant Mother is one of the most iconic photographs in American history. It was shot during the great depression of the 1930′s. The project, sponsored by the Gvmnt’ under the U.S. Farm Security Administration and the Office of War Information and was meant to document the plight of Americans across the country during that time period. Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange and Gordon Parks were all contributors to the project. Because the project was Government sponsored it means they were working for you. Think of it as your grand parents tax dollars hard at work. Most of the pictures under the FSA are rights free and are allowed to be used and duplicated. You can even order prints on line at the Library of Congress.
“Publication and other forms of distribution: Permitted. Most photographs in this collection were taken by photographers working for the U.S. Government. Work by the U.S. Government is not eligible for copyright protection (see page 5 of the Copyright Office’s Circular 1, “Copyright Basics”). However, the FSA occasionally and the OWI frequently bought or otherwise obtained some photographs from other sources. All known information about the source of the images is found in the labels on the photographs. Patrons are advised to check for copyright before publishing or otherwise distributing photographs credited to other sources. Privacy and publicity rights may also apply.”
The library collection was digitized during the mid-90′s (which is the reason for the lack high quality scans) and have been online and available to the public. Over the last couple years the LOC has done a great job at expanding access to their library. The LOC has a Flickr account of which you can subscribe too. They are also on twitter talking about events at the physical Library (in Washington D.C.) as well as the unveiling of newly published photo sets. The latest set called “FSA/OWI Favorites” is one of the best in my opinion.
What the Library of Congress is doing as an organization is smart. Rather than invest a ton of time and money to rebuild it’s own infrastructure it is using the platforms available (like Flickr and Twitter) to reach it’s audience. By adding content on these networks also allows for users to share and spread the content with ease, as these features are built into the platforms.
