The Road West

1938

Not on view

Lange photographed this stretch of U.S. 54 in southern New Mexico while she was employed by the Farm Security Administration. During the Depression, this highway was the west-bound route taken by many families who hoped to find work in California. Upon discovering conditions no better than those they left behind, they often returned east. In "An American Exodus" (1939), published by Lange and her husband, Paul Taylor, this image is accompanied by an observation made by someone they met in the field: "They keep the road hot a goin' and a comin' . . . They've got roamin' in their head." In the vernacular terms of the moment or in the timeless terms of the photograph, this picture is clearly an invitation to travel.

Artwork Details

Object Information

Overview

Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings

Provenance

Exhibition History

Title: The Road West
Artist: Dorothea Lange (American, 1895–1965)
Date: 1938
Medium: Gelatin silver print
Dimensions: 17.3 x 24 cm (6 13/16 x 9 7/16 in.)
Classification: Photographs
Credit Line: Purchase, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Gift through Joyce and Robert Menschel and Harriette and Noel Levine Gift, 1990
Object Number: 1990.1005
Curatorial Department: Photographs

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