Pea Pickers in California / Members of a Roving Army of Fruit Pickers

February 1936

Medium

Gelatin silver print with ink and crayon

Dimensions

18.3 × 24.4 cm

Status

In Museum Collection

Collect24 Art ID

C24-817091

> This print by Dorothea Lange, made in the Washington, D. C. darkroom of the Resettlement Administration and sent to the *New York Times* for publication in August 1936, has pencil inscriptions in several different hands on the verso. Among them are various captions ("Pea pickers in Calif. ‘Mam [sic], I've picked peas from Calipatria to Ukiah'" and "Members of the roving army of fruit pickers"); date stamps; the RA stamp ("kindly use the following credit line: RESETTLEMENT ADMINISTRATION PHOTOGRAPHY BY Lange"); and the picture editor's directions ("single x 2 col, 4 x 3 ¾, tonight"). The *Times* art department worked on the picture itself, applying white, gray, and black pigment to make the figures appear more three-dimensional and to set them off from their auto/home and the grassy foreground. Crop marks provide further aids to the printers responsible for making zinc printing plates and laying out the feature. > > The truck or car modified to act as a home for migrants traveling from job to job was a common sight on California highways and at roadside camps in the 1930s. In this case, a truck has been adapted to provide sleeping quarters—complete with sunroof—and other hou…